The specialized anti-corruption prosecutor's office has filed serious charges against former Infrastructure Minister Andriy Pyvovarsky and his former first deputy Volodymyr Shulmeister. The charges relate to causing more than $49 million in damage to the state, and the case has gained resonance due to the scale of financial violations.
According to the investigation, in 2015, Pyvovarsky, together with Schulmeister, who also served as the head of the Tariff Council of the Ministry of Infrastructure, issued an order allowing private companies to collect half of the ship dues rate from vessels at the Pivdennyi seaport. The port is state-owned and managed by the Ukrainian Sea Ports Administration (USPA), which means that the right to collect fees is exclusively vested in the state-owned enterprise.
Instead of all revenue from fees going to the USPA budget, the Pyvovarsky and Schulmeister order allowed private companies to receive a significant portion of these funds. This decision resulted in losses to the state in the amount of over $49.63 million, as confirmed by expert opinions.
Now the former officials are charged under Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for a penalty of imprisonment for a term of three to six years. In addition, they may be deprived of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a term of up to three years and are required to pay a fine of five hundred to one thousand tax-free minimum incomes.
The criminal proceedings on the facts of abuse in the Ministry of Infrastructure were transferred from the SBU and the National Police to the NABU and SAPO in the fall of 2019. As a result of investigations and repeated appeals to the Cabinet of Ministers and other state bodies, it was possible to achieve the cancellation of the illegal order and the removal of obstacles to the use of state-owned parts of the port's water area. The amounts that were illegally received by private companies are currently arrested in their accounts.
