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Ukraine’s anti-graft authorities have sent to court a criminal case against two officials from Ukrzaliznytsia, the state-owned railway company, accused of embezzling nearly $290,000 through a rigged coal procurement tender.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) allege the officials misappropriated 11.8 million hryvnias (nearly $290,000) in a scheme to overpay a favored supplier.
According to investigators, a Ukrzaliznytsia branch organized a tender to purchase coal for heating passenger train cars. The branch’s deputy head—who also chaired the tender committee—allegedly colluded with the head of procurement to guarantee a specific company would win the bid. Rival firms were reportedly excluded from the auction through manipulated technical and procedural hurdles.
The chosen supplier delivered coal at inflated prices, resulting in a significant overpayment by Ukrzaliznytsia. Authorities say the suspects then misappropriated the surplus funds.
The scheme was uncovered in October 2021. Under Article 62 of Ukraine’s Constitution, all individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
This is not the first time Ukrzaliznytsia has come under scrutiny over coal procurement. A 2014 investigation by OCCRP revealed how the company and other state entities used corrupt tenders and shell companies to funnel illegally mined coal into Ukraine’s official economy—often at bloated prices.
In a separate OCCRP report, Ukrzaliznytsia was linked to former lawmaker Anton Prygodskyy, a close associate of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych. Companies tied to Prygodskyy reportedly secured lucrative railway service contracts worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias.
That investigation found Prygodskyy used Maltese offshore structures to help finance a 13 million euros ($14.9 million) luxury yacht, the Santa Maria T, potentially avoiding millions in taxes through EU loopholes.
Prygodskyy also co-owned the logistics company Lemtrans with Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. After the 2014 revolution, authorities began investigating suspicious privatizations of freight cars and alleged laundering schemes involving Prygodskyy-linked firms. To date, no criminal charges have been filed.
