Ex-minister Nasalyk faces imprisonment for billion-dollar embezzlement with state property in favor of Firtash

Ex-minister Nasalyk faces imprisonment for billion-dollar embezzlement with state property in favor of Firtash

Law enforcement agencies have referred to court the case of the former head of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry and his subordinate, exposed in multi-billion abuses of state property in favor of one of the gas oligarchs—causing damages to the state budget amounting to almost 1.5 billion UAH.

He now faces imprisonment. The names of the minister and the oligarch have not been disclosed; however, according to media sources, it concerns Ihor Nasalyk and Dmytro Firtash.

The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) reported the transfer of the case to court. They noted:

• Nasalyk is accused of abuse of power (part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
• For this, he faces up to six years of imprisonment.

"On the instruction of the head of the Ministry, his subordinate head of the Energy and Coal Industry Department concluded deals with the well-known businessman’s structures that were knowingly unprofitable for the state. In particular, in violation of a Cabinet of Ministers resolution, officials artificially ’wrote off’ funds for businessmen for the use of state property. The amount of budget revenue lost from May 2017 to December 2020 is 1 billion 488 million UAH," the message states.

At the same time, the SBI reminded: in May 2022, the Pechersk Court in Kyiv seized the corporate rights of 26 gas distribution system operators, which were then transferred to the management of ARMA—Firtash’s regional gas companies. They are currently managed by the "State Joint-Stock Company ’Chornomornaftogaz’."

Additionally, it should be noted: Nasalyk was previously suspected of declaring false information. He was incriminated for concealing in his declaration a financial obligation of 1.2 million dollars, which he did not declare from 2015 to 2018.

However, the case was closed due to the Constitutional Court’s annulment of the responsibility for this offense. Nevertheless, Nasalyk himself sought and achieved the reopening of the case—wishing to prove his innocence. However, the High Anti-Corruption Court again closed the criminal proceedings.