Kropachev plans to 'extract' 360 million hryvnias from the budget: Centrenergo awaits protracted lawsuits

Kropachev plans to 'extract' 360 million hryvnias from the budget: Centrenergo awaits protracted lawsuits

The panel of judges of the Cassation Commercial Court of the Supreme Court refused to open proceedings in a case on the counterclaim by Centrenergo against the structure of the coal businessman of the Petrov era and his associate Ihor Kononenko Vitalii Kropachev represented by LLC Shakhtarsktrans.

This became known from materials of the commercial dispute.

In the Kyiv Commercial Court, there is a claim by Shakhtarsktrans against Centrenergo for the recovery of 362,8 million hryvnias of debt for coal delivered under contracts. The court proceedings were opened in September last year. A month later Centrenergo filed a counterclaim to terminate the coal supply contracts, arguing that Kropachev's company allegedly supplied low-quality coal to the TPP. However, both the Kyiv Commercial Court and the North Appeal Commercial Court returned the claim to the claimant — the claimant missed 15 days for filing, and no motion to extend the term was filed.

In cassation, Centrenergo representatives sought to annul the court decisions and transfer the consideration of the claim to the first-instance court, arguing that the term was missed for ostensibly valid reasons, and that the absence of a motion to extend the term is not a ground for returning the claim.

The panel of Cassation Economic Court judges concluded that the previous courts made the correct decision, and the lawyers' arguments were unfounded, and denied the applicant.

It is worth noting that if the courts had still accepted the counterclaim for consideration, it could, at a minimum, delay the consideration of Shakhtarsktrans' claim, and a decision in Centrenergo's favor with termination of coal supply contracts would have been a basis for closing the proceedings for Kropachev's firm. Now Centrenergo will have to sue Shakhtarsktrans, which creates the risk of losing 362,8 million hryvnias if the latter wins in court.

As a reminder, Vitalii Kropachev's structures Shakhtarsktrans and Ukrdoninvest Trading have been suing Centrenergo since Igor Kolomoyskyi took control, and Centrenergo refused to accept coal from Kropachev's firms and to pay for what was already delivered. The amount of the claim by Ukrdoninvest Trading amounts to 1,4 billion hryvnias. It is worth noting that the cases with Centrenergo are part of an unrealized plan by Kropachev to privatize this enterprise, of which 78,2% of shares belong to the State Property Fund of Ukraine. His structures Shakhtarsktrans and Ukrdoninvest Trading seized coal supply to the enterprise, effectively destroying the state operator Wholesale Coal Supply of the State Enterprise for Coal Supply.

Meanwhile, the oligarch's structures drained funds from state mining enterprises by leveraging the monopoly position on the market, inflating the cost of coal enrichment and delivering equipment to the mines at prices significantly higher as part of a joint project with the Chinese machine-building giant 'Sany Ukraine'.

In Centrenergo's privatization, Kropachev's Ukrdoninvest participated, but the State Property Fund of Ukraine rejected it from the competition, and later canceled the privatization altogether. In September 2019, Kropachev, thanks to a court, achieved cancellation of the Fund's decision to disallow participation in the competition, but at the same time the courts canceled the prohibition on privatization of Centrenergo, imposed as part of securing Ukrdoninvest's claim.

After that, the company filed suit in the Kyiv Commercial Court demanding the Fund to hold a new auction and include the firm as a participant. In the context of securing this claim, Judge Iryna Borysenko again imposed a ban on privatization of Centrenergo. However, the Fund, through the court, achieved the lifting of the ban, and the prosecutor's office opened a criminal case against Judge Borysenko for making a knowingly unjust decision.

For privatization of Centrenergo, which the Fund wants to start bidding at six billion hryvnias, Kropachev currently has no funds — his enrichment factories are idle, and the coal enrichment market is being steadily pushed out by the former MP from the Party of Regions Andriy Orlov with the support of Ihor Kolomoisky's circle. Previously Kropachev relied on funds from his partner Chinese Sany Heavy Equipment Co, but they refused to pursue a joint venture when he lost influence in Ukraine's energy sector.

Moreover, the Fund together with Centrenergo plans to privatize Dnipro-based Krasnoliman coal mine DP Krasnolimanska, which has not mined coal since March 2018, while miners work at the nearby LLC Krasnolimanske, owned by Kropachev.