Prosecutor`s Office in Odesa region has put on wanted list former general and executive directors of Odesa Oil Refinery, who were involved inthe so-called ”Kurchenko schemes” aimed at a theft of petroleum products, according to the press service of the prosecutor`s office.
The top managers have been charged with tax evasion within the criminal organization that used the resources of Odesa Oil Refinery. As a result, the state budget has under-received over UAH 2 billion, or US$75.3 million, in taxes and fees.
The two former officials, who are believed to have fled to Russia, are now put on wanted list.
In the course of the investigation, Odesa regional prosecutor`s office, together with the police and the SBU Security Service, notified 16 suspects involved in criminal transactions with oil products within the so-called ”Kurchenko scheme.”
The court has already handed down a guilty verdict with regard to one of the said individuals.
The searches at the premises of the Odesa oil refinery are ongoing.
Memo. In May 2014, Ukraine`s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said that the companies that are part of Serhiy Kurchenko`s EEFEC (Eastern European Fuel-Energy Company) over the previous two years imported to Ukraine under fictitious documents over 5 million tonnes of oil products worth UAH 36 billion. However, these petroleum products were to be supplied to third countries instead of being sold in Ukraine, which allowed companies owned by the ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych`s ally, young energy tycoon Serhiy Kurchenko, to evade taxation.
