Law enforcement officials confiscated over 16,000 tons of petroleum products worth nearly Hr 800 million ($22 million) while conducting searches of logistics bases and warehouses belonging to Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported.
Ukrnafta is an oil and gas extracting company. Ukrtatnafta is an oil refinery. Both are owned by Naftogaz, a state oil and gas company.
The SBU's press release states that the seizure successfully prevented the potential illegal sale of the products that were unlawfully taken from Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta by their former management.
The SBU has been investigating corruption schemes linked to Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta's former management.
According to the SBU, representatives of Ukrtatnafta had allegedly shipped fuel to affiliated companies' addresses without recording these transactions in their tax reporting. As a result, the controlled gas stations sold wholesale batches of petroleum products without paying the required excise tax.
Furthermore, the SBU stated that along with the Economic Security Bureau, it had previously exposed large-scale embezzlement schemes of Hr 40 billion ($1 billion) by the former owners and top management of Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta.
