Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) have sent to court an indictment against seven managers and officials of the Poltava Mining and Processing Combine (PGOC) owned by Ferrexpo, which is owned by former MP Konstantin Zhevago, who temporarily resides in France and is wanted internationally on the basis of the decision on his arrest in absentia.
According to the press release of the GBR, the management of PGOK, owned by the fugitive oligarch, will be put on trial, as the management embezzled tens of millions of hryvnias.
It is specified that the management of PGOK during 2019-2021 unlawfully disposed of minerals of national importance. Without having a special permit for the use of subsoil, it illegally sold tons of minerals for almost 80 million UAH.
“Then through the enterprises involved in the scheme resold the same raw materials, but much more expensive. In particular, the top management sold without the appropriate permits crushed stone raw material, which was produced from waste extracted in the quarry of minerals. The amount of the transaction amounted to more than 370 million UAH”, – stated in the message of the GBR.
The defendants are charged under part 3, 5 of Art. 27 part. 5 Art. 191, part 3, 5 Art. 27 part. 3 Art. 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The sanction of the articles provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to 12 years with confiscation of property.
Procedural management is carried out by the Office of the Prosecutor General.
In turn, PGOK-Ferrexpo traditionally stated its disagreement with the actions of law enforcement agencies, in particular, with the statement of the Office of the Prosecutor General of September 24, 2024 on the completion of the pre-trial investigation into the case of allegedly illegal mining and sale of minerals in the amount of 380 million UAH.
“PGOK categorically disagrees with the charges outlined,” the company’s statement emphasizes, considering that the company was not engaged in the extraction or sale of crushed stone, and the plant has permits for the extraction of iron ore, which it extracts, processes and enriches.
And it is added that the investigation has no facts of personal enrichment of the suspected representatives of top management, and the enterprise paid taxes and fees from the funds received for the sale of screening.
The statement also assures that PGOK is allegedly not under the control of “fugitive sub-sanctioned billionaire”, as the company belongs to the Ferrexpo group.
Earlier it was reported that other investigative actions are being conducted against the management of PGOK. In particular, in September 2023, investigators of the National Police informed Viktor Lotus, PGOK’s pre-manager, of suspicion for illegal mining of subsoil for UAH 157 billion, which also resulted in environmental damage (part 2 of article 28, part 4 of article 240, part 2 of article 364-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Ferrrexpo AG also claimed that according to the published financial statements of Ferrexpo Plc as of April 18, 2024, Fevalotinico SaRL owns 49.3% of PGOK. However, the court pointed out in one of its decisions that the 50.3% stake in PGOC had previously been seized, and subsequently there was a dilution (reduction) of the shares of Ferrexpo owned by Fevamotinico SaRL, which in turn is wholly owned by Minco Trust, whose ultimate beneficial owner is the defendant (Zhevago, the defendant in one of the cases – IF-U).
At the same time, the court noted that “the actions to reduce the defendant’s controlled share in the authorized capital of third parties during the validity of the court’s ruling on such an injunction directly contradicts the requirements of the current legislation and indicates bad faith behavior of the participants in the litigation”.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine. Ferrexpo owns 100% of Poltava GOK PJSC, 100% of Yeristovskiy GOK LLC and 99.9% of Belanovskiy GOK LLC.
