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Today, July 21, the Court of Appeal in Odesa region overruled an appeal motion by representatives of JSC Odesa Oil Refinery, Energy and Gas Ukraine LLC, and a representative of Serhiy Kurchenko, a young oligarch close to Viktor Yanukovych who had fled to Russia along with the other members of the ousted ex-president’s entourage, following the Revolution of Dignity.
"On July 21, 2017, the decision of the Suvorovsky District Court in Odesa on a special confiscation in favor of the State of all property of the Odesa oil refinery and a limited liability company came into force,” the prosecutor general’s press secretary, Larysa Sargan, wrote on Facebook.
Non-residential production premises and administrative buildings with a total area of over 38,000 square are being confiscated, as well as 77 hectares of land, and facilities for the refinery’s operations," Sargan reported.
The estimated cost of property seized in favor of the State is estimated at over $200 million, she added.
Read alsoOdesa oil refinery returned to state ownership, readied for repeat privatizationAs UNIAN reported earlier, on June 19, the Suvorovsky District Court in Odesa within the framework of a settlement reached with the investigation handed down a verdict on special confiscation of the integral property complex of the Odesa Refinery as a means of crime of the criminal organization led by Serhiy Kurchenko.
On April 26, former general director and executive director of the Odesa Refinery, who was involved in the exports of petroleum products under the so-called “Kurchenko scheme,” was put on wanted list. Former deputy head of the Refinery is now being held in custody, and a ship captain, involved in fictitious transportation of fuel.
Read also2017 privatization plan sees another attempt to sell OPP scheduled for DecemberIn May 2014, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said that the companies that are part of VETEK Holding owned by Kurchenko over the previous two years carried out fictitious imports to Ukraine of more than 5 million tonnes of petroleum products worth UAH 36 billion. According to the companies’ documents, these petroleum products were to be re-supplied to third countries instead of being sold in Ukraine. This enabled Kurchenko’s companies to evade taxes. Odesa Refinery, which was the asset of VETEK Holding, was actively used in the scheme.
In April 2014, Kurchenko was put on the international wanted list. During the investigation, his personal accounts, as well as his movable and immovable property worth a total of more than UAH 1.5 billion, were seized.
The Economic Court of Kyiv in late November 2015 lifted the arrest of VETEK’s funds and property.