The High Anti-Corruption Court on Oct. 27 ordered to reopen the investigation of one of the biggest corruption schemes in modern Ukrainian history, the so-called Rotterdam+ formula of energy price setting.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau, or NABU, has been investigating the scheme for three years. The investigation was approaching its final stages when the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecution, or SAPO, partly suspended it on Aug. 28.
According to SAPO, there was not enough evidence against the six suspects. The office also referred to the results of the most recent expert analysis released by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which was unable to establish how much money the state lost due to Rotterdam+.
However, another expert witness testimony estimated that the losses amount to Hr 40 billion ($1.4 billion), the money Ukrainian energy consumers should not have had to pay.
The scheme benefited, among others, the country’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov’s energy company DTEK, the largest energy supplier in Ukraine.
The Anti-Corruption Action Center, a corruption watchdog, successfully appealed the ruling, giving the NABU detectives green light to continue the investigation.
The lucrative formula
The infamous “Rotterdam+” formula allegedly benefited Akmetov’s company for three years: from 2016, when it was first introduced by Ukraine’s energy regulator, and until July 2019.
The formula set energy prices based on a coal index in European hubs “plus” the cost of its delivery to Ukraine. This is an unreasonable price-setting, according to NABU, because only a tiny portion of coal, around 5%, actually came from abroad.
The Rotterdam+ price, however, applied to all coal, whether it came from Ukrainian mines, South Africa, Rotterdam, or elsewhere.
Read more: Why authorities are trying to kill key Rotterdam+ investigation
The masterminds of the scheme were the employees of DTEK, an Akmetov-owned energy company. After creating the formula DTEK, which conducts 70% of the country’s coal energy production, colluded with the regulator to make it law, the NABU found.
The DTEK denies allegations of collusion.
The NABU struggle
In March 2017, NABU opened a criminal investigation into the controversial scheme.
The Rotterdam+ case was one of NABU’s priorities during recent years as it aimed at fighting corruption in Ukraine’s energy sector.
The case really got on track after the change of power in Ukraine in 2019, but not for long.
NABU detectives complained to the Kyiv Post reporters in mid-September that they had been facing constant pressure while investigating this case. They were struggling to find expert witnesses, whose testimonies are mandatory for bringing the case to court.
The prosecutor overseeing the case had always been reluctant to sanction their actions, the detectives said. He was the one who eventually closed the case.
By doing so he withdrew the notices of suspicion earlier handed to six alleged executants of the scheme. They are government officials and DTEK employees.
Now, when the High Anti-Corruption Court reopened the case, the notices will have to be reissued.
