Kyiv Pechersky District Court
has granted the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine to choose
arrest as a pre-trial preventive measure for fugitive Ukrainian businessman
Serhiy Kurchenko, the PGO's press service reported.
"On January 3, 2017, the
investigating judge of Pechersky District Court of Kyiv issued a ruling to
grant a repeated request by the Prosecutor General's Office to choose a
preventive measures in the form of detention," the press service reported.
The Prosecutor General's
Office reiterates that they are holding a pre-trial investigation into
Kurchenko on suspicion of establishing and managing a criminal organization and
misappropriating property using state-run and private banking institutions,
state-owned enterprises of the fuel and energy sector in a large scale. The
activities of the criminal organization have inflicted losses to the state
amounting to more than UAH 7 billion.
As reported, the Prosecutor
General's Office of Ukraine suspects Kurchenko of committing grievous crimes as
the head of a criminal group in 2010 and early 2014 in the area of business
operations with liquefied gas. In particular, during this period Kurchenko
headed an organized criminal group through which he arranged the illegal
seizure of state-owned liquefied gas produced by PJSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia and
PJSC Ukrnafta and worth UAH 2.2 mln. The liquefied gas was bought at
specialized auctions at understated price, allegedly to provide for the needs
of the public. Then, this liquefied gas was sold to Kurchenko-controlled
business entities at market prices.
As a result of these actions,
the state suffered damage totaling more than UAH 2 billion.
Kurchenko has been on the
international wanted list since March 2014.
His property and other assets
totaling over UAH 2.8 billion have been arrested. The pretrial investigation is underway.
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