The Appellate Chamber of the VAKS refused to consider the issue of banning Kobolev from leaving Ukraine
9 January 16:25
In December, a panel of judges of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court (SACS) granted the petition of the prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) and imposed procedural duties on the former chairman of the board of Naftohaz Ukrayiny, Andriy Kobolev. Among them, in particular, is a ban on traveling abroad. Kobolev’s defense tried to appeal this decision of the VAKS, indicates the Ruling of the Appellate Chamber of the Supreme anti-corruption court, informs Komersant ukrainskyi 
.
“The Supreme Anti-Corruption Court by its ruling granted the prosecutor’s petition filed in the said criminal proceedings and imposed on the accused LITSO_3 additional duties provided for by part 5 of article 194 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – CPC of Ukraine). The defendant’s counsel filed an appeal against the said ruling. First of all on its content refers to the possibility of appealing such a court decision”, – stated in the document.
The judges noted that “the definition of the court of first instance of 03.12.2024, appealed by the defense party, cannot be the subject of a separate appeal”.
“Objections against it may be included in the appeal against the judgment on the results of the criminal proceedings,” the Ruling said.
Accordingly, the judges of the Appellate Chamber of the VAKS decided to “refuse to open proceedings on the appeal”.
Recall that now Kobolev is obliged:
- to inform the court about the change of place of residence;
- refrain from communicating with witnesses in the case;
- hand over all passports to the State Migration Service of Ukraine.
Kobolev case
According to the NABU version, Kobolev took possession of more than UAH 229 million in 2018 – his actions are qualified under part 5 of article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation, embezzlement of property or taking possession of it by abuse of office).
This article provides for a penalty of imprisonment for 7 to 12 years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 3 years and confiscation of property.
NABU detectives believe that Kobolev, while holding the position of the head of Naftogaz, “himself initiated the consideration by the Supervisory Board of the company to approve the payment of a bonus to him “for the achievement of weighty goals”, and subsequently prepared amendments and additions to the submission on the bonus for extraordinary achievements, determining its size in 10 million U.S. dollars”.
NABU investigates another criminal case against ex-head of Naftogaz Kobolev
The NABU case accusing the former head of Naftogaz Andriy Kobolev of illegally paying himself UAH 229 million in bonuses has now been transferred to court and is being heard in the VAKS (proceeding No. 42018000000001782). At the same time, it turned out that the NABU now has another criminal proceeding against Kobolev – No. 52023000000000177. And the facts that detectives are investigating within its framework are also related to the accrual and payment of multimillion bonuses to Kobolev.
In particular, the text of the relevant Resolution of the SACS notes that the case No. 52023000000000177 has been separated from the case No. 42018000000001782. And this new proceeding concerns “the circumstances of payment of the second part of the bonus to Kobolev and agreement on the extension of the labor contract”.
