Media: heads of Ukraine's Naftogaz reward themselves with nearly $14 million after victory over Gazprom
Ukraine’s Naftogaz Board of Directors has awarded Andriy Kobolyev, Chairman of the Board, and Yuriy Vitrenko, Commercial Director, a combined total of $13.9 million from the award earned in the company’s legal victory over Gazprom in the Stockholm Arbitration Court, reported the newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, citing its own sources.
In total, the Supervisory Board decided to award employees nearly $37 million. This amount will be distributed among 41 employees who "directly or indirectly made a significant contribution to the achievement of this result."
"According to several sources, the Chairman of the Board of NJSC Naftogaz Ukraine Andriy Kobolyev received 207 million UAH ($7.9 million dollars). All of the received sum was deposited in an Oschadbank account, and Kobolyev decided to convert the hryvnia into US dollars, indicating that the reason was support for his family," said the article’s author, Ihor Maskalevich.
A source at the bank said that the first sum of $800,000 has already been sent to his mother.
"The main commercial director of Naftogaz, Yuriy Vitrenko, was allocated 130 million UAH ($6 million dollars). The rest of the sum of the ‘first tranche’ will be divided into card accounts for others ‘indirectly involved’, which at the same time, guarantees, if necessary, a bunch of lawsuits if a decision is taken to take this money back," the article says.
In turn, the remaining portion - $25.6 million - will be paid out over three years "solely on condition that the rest of the award is successfully recovered from Gazprom." Thus, an incentive was created, the newspaper notes.