Former Deputy Chairman of the Kharkiv Regional Council Volodymyr Skorobagach will be tried in the High Anti-Corruption Court on suspicion of organizing a scheme to embezzle funds through fictitious companies. According to the investigation, in 2022, he and his accomplices illegally attracted electricity from the United Energy System of Ukraine and caused losses to the state-owned company Ukrenergo of more than 58 million hryvnias.
Investigators believe that Skorobagach created a group of individuals, which included the head of a private enterprise and its founder. Through three fictitious companies, they received electricity from the Unified Energy System and transferred it to a controlled company for further sale to end consumers. Instead of returning to the state system, the money from the sale was transferred to the accounts of financial institutions under the guise of loan repayment, which allowed them to avoid settlements with Ukrenergo.
Despite the criminal proceedings, the public outcry surrounding the former official's family continues. In September, Skorobagach's wife was spotted in Monaco driving a BMW i8, estimated to cost at least $70,000. This contrast between the suspicions of large-scale embezzlement and the family's luxurious lifestyle has sparked a new wave of public outrage.
The Supreme Court of Ukraine has scheduled a preparatory hearing in the case of Skorobagach, as well as the defendants - former and current directors of Powerstock LLC Denis Khokhlachev and Iryna Khasianova - for October 23, 2025. If found guilty, they face imprisonment under articles on embezzlement of state property and abuse of office.
This case could become one of the illustrative processes in the energy sector, where corruption schemes are often disguised as business transactions, and real losses are measured in tens of millions of hryvnias.
