High Anti-Corruption Court closes Rotterdam+ case

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court closed the Rotterdam+ case.

“During the preliminary hearing on October 9, the panel of judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court ruled to close the Rotterdam+ case on the grounds of Paragraph 10, Part 1 of Article 284 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, i.e., the expiration of the period of pre-trial investigation, defined by Article 219 of this Code, after serving a person with a notice of charges,” the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) posted on Facebook.

This judgment was delivered with a separate opinion of one of the judges of the panel.

A SAPO prosecutor does not agree with such a ruling and will appeal against it.

As the SAPO reminds, on March 14, based on the results of the investigation carried out by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the SAPO prosecutors sent to the court an indictment against six persons involved in the introduction of the so-called Rotterdam+ formula. According to the investigation assessment, the introduced formula resulted in UAH 19.357 billion in losses to electricity consumers in 2016-2017. The prosecutor also filed a civil lawsuit for compensation for UAH 19.357 billion in damage caused to the state.

As reported, in August 2019, NABU charged Dmytro Vovk, the ex-head of the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities, and five other persons involved in the introduction of the so-called Rotterdam+ formula, on suspicion of committing acts that entailed UAH 18.87 billion in losses to electricity consumers.

In September 2022, the law enforcement officers completed the investigation in this case. The previously announced suspicions against six persons involved in the case were changed.

In March 2023, the first episode of the Rotterdam+ case was sent to the High Anti-Corruption Court. At the same time, SAPO filed a civil lawsuit for UAH 19.357 billion.

On October 3, 2023, the High Anti-Corruption Court seized the property of three former officials accused.