The Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA), at the request of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), has traced the assets of officials of the former Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine.

According to the investigation, the Ministry's officials artificially created obstacles to the implementation of the Cabinet of Ministers' resolution on the operation of gas distribution systems, facilitating payment evasion for the use of state property. As a result of these actions, the state budget lost 1.488 billion UAH between May 2017 and December 2020.

“Our specialists have already found the first assets of the defendants in the case: 3 residential and non-residential properties, 4 land plots and 2 vehicles. We are also waiting for responses from banking institutions on the availability of accounts and funds on them. ARMA will do everything to ensure that all assets illegally acquired by the officials are found,” said Pavlo Velykorechanin, Deputy Head of ARMA.

He added that all information about the assets has already been transferred to the pre-trial investigation body to take measures to seize the identified assets and then transfer them to the management of the ARMA.

As a reminder, ARMA is currently managing the corporate rights of 26 gas distribution system operators, which were subsequently transferred to JSC «Chornomornaftogaz» in accordance with the Cabinet of Ministers' order.