The lawyers of the former head of Naftogaz, accused of misappropriating funds, are begging the court to return at least part of the deposit.
"All the funds - and UAH 229.2 million must be collected by Monday, March 6 - will go to bail for the biggest enemy of the Russian gas monopoly and the brightest manager of Naftogaz - Andriy Kobolev... After the end of the misunderstanding in the form of a lawsuit against Kobolev, these funds will be refunded to everyone who joined and requested a refund. Alternatively, funds can be directed to the "Return Alive" fund. These words belong to the Ukrainian businessman and founder of the Concorde Capital investment company Ihor Mazepa. Almost a year ago, on Facebook, he made a call to support the ex-head of Naftogaz with money, who was on the verge of imprisonment.
Mr. Mazepa is a friend of the ex-director of Naftogaz Kobolev, who anti-corruption authorities of misappropriating funds in particularly large amounts. In March 2023, Mazepa, together with the new wife of the former "oil and gas worker" Svitlana Panaiotidi, launched a challenge: in a matter of days, through social networks, they collected an incomplete, but significant amount for Andriy Kobolev's bail.
The work was half done. 1982 donors donated 106.5 million to the accounts of "Concord Consulting" LLC (owned by Mazepa) and the public organization "Democratic Axe" with the label: "Target program pledge". Then these organizations transferred these funds to the deposit account of the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court.
Andriy Kobolev, the hero of this story, added one million "with a tail" to the pledge from himself.
The uniqueness of Kobolev's case lies in the fact that UAH 107 million of bail was deposited for the ex-manager of Naftogaz, which is only 46.71% of the amount determined by the court. In other words, the court decision regarding the selection of a preventive measure was not implemented. Kobolev's lawyer Oleksandr Lysak even publicly admitted this. His quote: "We have an interesting situation with a precautionary measure for Andrii Volodymyrovych Kobolev. After all, there is an appeal decision in which the amount of the bail (229.2 million UAH). As of today, the entire deposit has not been paid, so it can be assumed that the court decision on the appointment of a preventive measure has not been fulfilled. When the prosecutor applied for a change in the preventive measure, the court partially satisfied and obliged (the suspect - "Glavkom") to wear an electronic monitoring device," said the lawyer of the ex-top manager of Naftogaz.
At the same time, lawyer Oleksandr Lysak noted that the prosecutor's office had the opportunity to re-initiate the review of the preventive measure, taking into account the failure to provide bail. But this did not happen.
In relative peace, the money of the concerned Ukrainians for bail for the figure lay until the beginning of 2024. And then the unexpected happened...
"Give back our money!"
On January 9, the High Anti-Corruption Court took up consideration of the lawyer's request to change the preventive measure against the former head of Naftogaz. Similar "probing" of Themis occurred more than once during 2023. For example, on November 30, the defense side convinced the court that it is necessary to return to Kobolev all his foreign passports, which were confiscated at the insistence of the anti-corruption prosecutor's office. The arguments are simple: since the beginning of 2022, the accused was abroad, and in early January 2023, having learned about his criminal prosecution, he deliberately came to Ukraine. Moreover, during the pre-trial investigation, Kobolev, with the permission of the investigation, went abroad "to maintain the defense capability of our state."
But Themis was not impressed by such explanations of the defense side and she refused to grant the request. However, this time extraordinary circumstances emerged in the process.
The defender of Naftogaz's ex-expert began his speech by analyzing the bail of the accused in the amount of 107.1 million hryvnias. According to the lawyer, out of the total sum, UAH 101.83 million was contributed by Concord Consulting LLC. However, there is an important nuance emphasized by the defendant's lawyers: the funds deposited for Kobolev are not the property of Concord Consulting. Money was deposited into the company's account by caring citizens who support Kobolev. And now, as the defense claims, some of these citizens demand to return their own money. Corresponding appeals are already being sent to Concord Consulting LLC.
In turn, Ihora Mazepa's company pelted both Kobolev himself and the anti-corruption court with "letters of happiness": they say, they played, and now it's time to return the money. Most likely, it was about UAH 35.59 million. After all, the lawyers asked the court to reduce the amount of the bail by this amount.
The prosecutor joined these debates. She criticized the proposal to reduce the bail. The arguments were reduced to the fact that "Concord Consulting" LLC independently decided to be the defendant's mortgagor. This also applies to the collection of funds for a pledge. As the prosecutor noted, during the raising of funds, the society reported that the funds could be returned after the end of the case or, at the request of the same persons, the money could be directed to a charity fund. The current demands of citizens to "Concord Consulting" LLC regarding the return of money are not grounds for reducing the amount of the preventive measure applied to Andrii Kobolev, the prosecution emphasized.
Themis also took an unshakable position: the status of a mortgagor is not exhausted only by the fact of paying the required amount in favor of a person who is under criminal prosecution. On the contrary, the mortgagors must understand that they may lose the deposited funds in general, if the suspect or the accused does not fulfill the duties assigned to him by the court.
Separately, the court stated that any contracts of a civil law nature, concluded between third parties and the pledger LLC "Concord Consulting" regarding the provision of bail for Kobolev, do not require a mandatory change of the preventive measure.
"The court session did not establish grounds for changing the preventive measure against the accused by reducing the amount of bail and canceling the additional obligation in the form of handing over to the State Migration Service of Ukraine all passports for traveling abroad," said the anti-corruption court's ruling.
Mazepa now has his own problems
And already late in the evening of January 18, it became known about the detention of Kobolev's comrade, businessman Ihor Mazepa, . This happened while crossing the Ukrainian-Polish border in Shegin. According to the lawyers, he was on his way to the World Economic Forum in Davos. The defenders, however, for some reason did not take into account the fact that the forum is ending today, and all Ukrainian events have been held at it. Therefore, such an explanation had a strange appearance.
According to the media, there seems to be a Russian trace in the case against Mazepa. In addition, it was noted that the State Bureau of Investigation is conducting searches in the office of Concorde Capital, interested in obtaining the right to land for the construction of a premium cottage town Goodlife Park in the Vyshgorod district of the Kyiv region. The businessman's lawyers said that during the search, security forces broke down the door of the business center.
"Searches in the company are carried out without a court order, all documents that are not related to the case, but related to all areas of Ihor Mazepa's business activity, are taken away. Personal belongings of employees working in other projects were removed. The criminal proceedings themselves relate to the construction of real estate (cottage towns) back in 2013..." - such a statement was made public by the Concorde Capital company closer to the night.
On the morning of January 19, the law enforcement officers made public the details of the searches. According to the investigation, businessman Ihor Mazepa played the role of the organizer of the scheme of illegal acquisition of lands on which hydrotechnical structures of the critical infrastructure - Kyiv HPP are located. During 2020-2021, the founder of the investment company, his brother and other members of the criminal organization using corrupt connections in state bodies seized more than 7 hectares worth more than UAH 20 million. Currently, the issue of notifying detainees of suspicion of illegal privatization of state property, legalization of property obtained through criminal means, and the founder of an investment company in the creation and management of a criminal organization, as well as participation in it, is being resolved.
Given the course of events, the criminal prosecution of businessman Mazepa cannot be avoided. In this case, he, like Kobolev, may appear before the court. And then there is a familiar set of techniques from the law enforcement officers: requests for the selection of a preventive measure, seizure of property, bail, etc.
If the security forces wish, they can arrange criminal "spam" for the businessman. For example, the opening of criminal proceedings against Mazepa under the articles "Fraud" (Article 190 of the Criminal Code) or "Appropriation of someone else's property" (Article 191 of the Criminal Code) for the episode of... collecting funds for Kobolev's bail.
The impetus for this can be the appeals of donors who knock on the thresholds of Mazepiv LLC "Concord Consulting".
Especially since a year ago, an interesting comment appeared under a Facebook post by Kobolev's wife, Svitlana Panaiotidi. An outsider reported the transfer of a certain amount of funds to the account of Concord Consulting LLC as a deposit for Kobolev. At the same time, he admitted that he did not sign any documents with Mazepa's company: "I threw away the sum, which is not a pity. It is not necessary to return. It's just that they (Concord Consulting LLC - Glavkom) have problems with taxation and reports."
It will be recalled that in January 2023, investigators of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office informed the former chairman of the board of Naftogaz of Ukraine, Andriy Kobolev, about the suspicion. The ex-head of Naftogaz is suspected of embezzling more than UAH 229 million in 2018. In general, during 2018, according to the investigation, more than UAH 229.25 million was illegally paid to the suspect at the expense of the company (the difference between the actually paid premium and its maximum permissible amount). Instead, the defense denies everything and considers these payments to be legal.
The investigation established that the head of the company (2014-2021) in May 2018, contrary to the law, issued an order to reward the company's employees, on the basis of which he was paid almost UAH 261 million (equivalent to $10 million) for extraordinary achievements. This is a positive decision in the case regarding the contract for the purchase and sale of natural gas in 2009-2019.
In total, according to law enforcement officers, during the years 2017-2022, Andriy Kobolev received more than UAH 413 million in income. What is interesting: when the suspect "left" Naftogaz in April 2021, he was paid another 338.6 million UAH as a farewell bonus. At the same time, as of 2017, the head of OJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine was considered one of the highest paid heads of energy companies in Europe. He received an average monthly salary equivalent to 31.5 thousand euros, which was 136 times more than the average salary in the country. However, this is only about the salary, because the payments were much higher, taking into account the solid monthly bonuses. By the way, as the prosecutor stated in court the other day, over $20 million in bonuses was paid to Andriy Kobolev during his work at Naftogaz.
Vitaly Taranenko
