The higher anti-corruption court canceled the seizure of shares of 26 regional and city operators of gas distribution systems owned by businessman Dmytro Firtash. The decision of the court was confirmed by VACS, but the reasons will be made public later. The court has not yet released the reasons for its decision, promising to provide the full text next week.
Appropriate solution made public in the court register.
In May 2022, at the request of the DBR, the court transferred the seized shares of Firtash Regional Gas to the ARMA administration, which later transferred them to Naftogaz.
A year later, in May 2023, the SBU and the State Security Service announced the suspicion of Dmytro Firtash in the case of causing losses to the state budget in the amount of UAH 18 billion. At the time, the SBU reported that Firtash’s companies bought gas from a structure controlled by him, but in fact received no more than 30% of the gas volume paid for. The deficit was covered at the expense of state-owned gas – regional gas companies simply took the unreceived fuel from the gas transportation system of Ukraine. At the same time, the state was almost not paid for it, referring to “lack of funds”. Firtash’s companies accounted for 70% of all gas distribution networks in Ukraine.
Group DF, owned by Firtash, considered the continuation of sanctions as a pressure on business and intends to challenge them in Ukrainian and international courts.
On June 25, 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by decree extended the sanctions against Ukrainian businessmen Dmytro Firtash and Pavel Fuchs, as well as a number of Russian oligarchs, for ten years.
