Eastern Ore Dressing Plant director Oleksandr Sorokin and the plant’s ex-deputy director Volodymyr Bohdanets, two key suspects in a criminal probe against People’s Front faction ex-lawmaker Mykola Martynenko, who is charged with embezzling $17 million, have fled the country, prosecutor of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s office Roman Symkiv said.
On April 22, in an interview with Censor.net, a Ukrainian news website, Symkiv said that “on March 29, on the same day, Sorokin and Bohdanets went abroad and they have not returned since. They were about to be charged with the offences. I assume that they knew about it.” Their whereabouts remain unknown.
On April 20 the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine arrested Martynenko and charged him with organized crime and embezzling $17 million during uranium ore sales to the state-owned Eastern Ore Dressing Plant. According to the bureau, Austria’s Steuermann Investitions und Handelsgesellschaft, which is allegedly controlled by Martynenko, was selling during 2013-2016 Kazakh uranium ore at a huge profit to the Eastern Ore Dressing Plant, which sells uranium to Ukraine’s state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom. If found guilty, Martynenko faces up to 12 years in jail. Martynenko has denied any wrongdoing.
Specialized anti-corruption prosecutor’s office suspects Sorokin and Bohdanets as part of management of Eastern Ore Dressing Plant were involved in Martynenko’s schemes.
Kyiv’s Solomyansky Court on April 22 released Martynenko without bail, even though prosecutors asked the court to arrest and jail Martynenko on a Hr 300 million ($11.2 million) bail.
During the hearing 21 people, including 17 lawmakers from People’s Front faction in the parliament and three ministers that are also close to People’s Front party, offered to vouch safe for Martynenko to get him out.
