The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) under the procedural guidance of prosecutors of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office (SAP) states the exposure of a criminal organization led by the former chairman of the State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine, whose participants during 2019-2021 seized over 500 million UAH funds of JSC “Odessa Port Plant” (OPP) and JSC “United Mining and Chemical Company” (UMCP).
“At the same time, the amount of unlawful benefit received by members of the criminal organization for the entire period of control of JSC “OPZ” is more than 2 billion UAH,” the NABU reported on its website on Wednesday.
In the message there is no direct reference to the name of the head of the IGF, except “DS” or “Dima”. Meanwhile, at the time in question, the Fund was headed by Dmytro Sennichenko, who in 2019-2020 three times surrendered to the NABU who offered him bribes, including $5 million for the appointment of OPZ director.
As the NABU now claims, the criminal organization led by Sennichenko also included a person close to him (co-organizer), an adviser to the head of the IGF, two acting OPZ director, the acting head of the OGHK, two owners of LLC – the winner of the auction for toll processing at the OPZ and two more individuals.
The report indicates that the OPZ’s acting director and an adviser to the head of the State Property Fund have been detained. Seven persons – the former head of the SPF, a person close to him, the acting director of the OPZ, the acting head of the OGCC, two LLC owners and one individual – were notified of the suspicion in accordance with Article 135, Article 278 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (in writing), while one more person was personally detained.
As reported, the OPZ has been idle since late April 2018. The company called work on give-and-take conditions the only possible option for the resumption of its work in conditions of failed attempts at privatization and accumulated debt for gas to Naftogaz of Ukraine, which exceeds 1.5 billion UAH.
In August 2019, the plant resumed work under the contract signed with Agro Gas Trading LLC (Kiev, “ATG”) under the tolling scheme until December 1, 2019.
In September 2019, Dmitry Sennichenko was appointed head of the GPF instead of Vitaly Trubarov, who reported on December 11 that the updated composition of the new leadership of the GPF board of directors agreed with the davalter to increase the price for processing.
In mid-December, it was announced that the OPZ’s board of directors had agreed to a supplementary agreement with AGT to the tolling agreement for the period from January 1 to April 30, 2020.
At the end of January, 2020 OPZ announced a tender for the selection of a supplier of 50-60 million cubic meters of gas per month on give-and-take terms for the work of the enterprise in May-December the same year. The minimum bid price was $37 per ton of ammonia and $48 per ton of urea (excluding VAT).
At the end of February 2020 First Deputy Director of OPZ Mykola Shchurikov said that the company accepted bids from eight companies to participate in the tender for the selection of a partner for toll processing of gas into mineral fertilizers during May-December 2020: IBE Trade (USA), Basis Trade AG, MADDOX SA (both Switzerland) and Ukrainian Agro Gas Trading LLC, Trading House Socar Ukraine LLC, Tech Prom Gas LLC, Ukrnaftoburnia JSC and Yug Gas LLC.
In early March, Shchurikov said that Ukrnaftoburinnya (UNB), owned by Igor Kolomoysky and Vitaliy Khomutynnyk, offered the best price conditions in the final stage of the tender: $77 for processing a ton of urea and $39.5 for processing ammonia.
On March 10, when the results were officially announced, the OPZ National Assembly cancelled the tender for the selection of the investor. The SPF stated that the reason for the cancellation was “an overpriced, economically unreasonable proposal” by UNB, which, in the opinion of the agency, is unprofitable for the mining company.
The OPF Board of Directors stated that it saw in such actions of the “UNB” owners “an aspiration to gain leverage to manage the plant and take it under their control, which will result in the return of corrupt schemes at the plant, reducing its market value and creating the preconditions for the transfer of the OPF into private hands for next to nothing.
NABU, SENNICHENKO, ОГХК, ОПЗ
