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Ukraine’s interior ministry puts VETEK boss Sergei Kurchenko on wanted list

Earlier, the Ukrainian authorities accused VETEK of tax evasion to a sum of seven billion hryvnias (about $623 million)

© AP Photo/Sergei Grits

KIEV, April 04, /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s interior ministry has put the chairman of the supervisory board of the East European Fuel and Energy Company (VETEK), Sergei Kurchenko, on the wanted list on charges of large-scale embezzlement of property.

On Friday, the ministry posted Kurchenko’s photo and information about him on its official website, in the wanted list section. The ministry said the man had left Ukraine on February 19.

Earlier, the Ukrainian authorities accused VETEK of tax evasion to a sum of seven billion hryvnias (about 623 million U.S. dollars at the current rate of exchange established by Ukraine’s Central Bank). According to Arsen Avakov, the parliament-appointed Interior Minister, Kurchenko had set up a number of dummy companies that sold oil products under fake documents and evaded taxes. Eleven criminal cases were opened in Crimea, the Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, Cherkassy, Kirovograd, Khmelnitsky, Lugansk and Rovno regions, and in the city of Kiev, Avakov said. A total of 13,000 tonnes of oil products, accounting documents and computers were seized.

VETEK incorporates structures that sell liquefied natural gas, oil products, and natural gas. The company engages in production, trade and investment activities in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and in Central European countries.

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