The Economic Court of Cherkasy region in a full decision dated February 20, 2023 granted the claim of PJSC Cherkasyoblenergo to invalidate the purchase and sale contracts of Steblevskaya and Korsun-Shevchenko HPPs between the company and the foreign economic association Novosvit in 2015.
“The property complexes of Steblevskaya HPP and Korsun-Shevchenko HPP were alienated under the disputed contracts without holding an auction, without notifying the State Property Fund of Ukraine in order to conceal illegal transactions, which resulted in significant damage to PJSC Cherkasyoblenergo and the state”, – says the court decision.
As follows from the document, assessment of the property alienated under the disputed agreements to determine its market value, in violation of the requirements of the law “On Joint Stock Companies” and the charter of “Cherkassyoblenergo” was carried out without decision of the Supervisory Board of the company to involve a subject of evaluation activities, without approval of the terms of the contract with him and establishing the amount of his services payment, as well as approval of the market value of property.
“As a result of illegal appraisal of the property of the Stebleva HPP and the Korsun-Shevchenko HPP as integral property complexes, the acting Chairman of the Company’s Board S.A. Kuzminska, who concluded the disputable contracts on behalf of Cherkasyloblenergo, artificially underestimated the market value of these two HPPs in order to avoid the prohibition, provided by the PJSC Charter, for her own decision on transactions with property with a market value of over 5% of the company assets”, the court decision says.
According to the document, the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine is currently conducting a pre-trial investigation into the criminal proceedings on the embezzlement of property of Cherkasyoblenergo on a particularly large scale, during which the conclusion on November 6, 2015 between Cherkasyoblenergo represented by S.A. Kuzminskaya and the foreign economic association Novosvit in violation of the requirements of current legislation and the charter of the PJSC.
According to the lawyer of the company “Tsypin and Partners” Marina Sutkovych, who represented the interests of “Cherkassyoblenergo” in court, the total amount of losses of the company as a result of the purchase and sale of two hydroelectric power plants amounted to 139,5 million UAH.
At the beginning of 2022, 46% of Cherkassyoblenergo shares were transferred from the State Property Fund to the Ministry of Energy. Another 25% of shares are managed by Ukrainian Energy Saving Service Company PJSC (UkrEsco).
