Petrotel Lukoil, Lukoil Europe Holdings Bvatrium Netherlands and persons from management persons are being indicted for money laundering, using the company’s credit in a malevolent way and complicity in money laundering, according to a press release from the Ministry of Justice.
The following persons are being prosecuted: General Manager of Petrotel Lukoil and member of governing board of the company, Andrey Bogdanov, deputy general manager Alexey Voinstev, deputy general manager Olga Kuzina, Andrei Rață, Member of the Board, Dan Dănulescu, deputy general manager, and Dorel Duţu, Petrotel Lukoil chief accountant. According to prosecutors, the damage caused is almost 7.6 billion lei, the equivalent of about 1.77 billion euros.
The indictment states that between 2011 and 2014, “the defendants knowingly used maliciously the credit of the company they managed, for a purpose contrary to its interests, to promote Lukoil Europe Holdings BV Holland, a member of Lukoil group, in which they had a direct or indirect interest, in that they have ordered, authorized, acquiesced payments by way of reimbursement of debt under credit agreement under which Petrotel Lukoil had the quality of lender-borrower, amounts paid to settle a fictional debt, borrowed money for which, detrimental to the company, they changed the destination by switching off a loan under favorable conditions with an unfavorable one for investment, which were not reflected in the company’s investments, as well as amounts returned by way of redemption and coming from a simulated equity”.
However, the defendants, willingly and orderly transferred money for which, allegedly, they had knowledge it derived from using malevolently the company’s credit, comprising the constitutive elements of money laundering.
To recover the prejudice, precautionary measures were imposed on a number of shares amounting to over 442.1 million lei, on premiums held by Lukoil Europe Holdings Bvatrium Netherlands, shareholder in Petrotel Lukoil, worth of nearly 1.89 billion lei, to accounts held by Lukoil Petrotel at RBS Bank Netherlands, and on the amounts paid thereafter up to a maximum of about 2 billion euros, US dollar equivalent. Precautionary measures were instituted also to accounts held by Lukoil Europe Holdings Bvatrium Netherlands, at City Bank London.