Former Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine of disgraced ex-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's times Oleksandr Sukhomlyn has been detained and arrested. He is charged of embezzlement of state-owned assets and causing damage of some UAH 5 billion to Ukraine, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said.

"Today we can tell about the first results in the episode concerning the criminal schemes of Kurchenko [a crony of Yanukovych, businessman Serhiy Kurchenko]… We jointly with law enforcers… yesterday detained one of the organizers of the criminal scheme to steal liquefied gas, the active member of the criminal group, citizen Sukhomlyn," Lutsenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Saturday.

The investigation believes that, while serving as head of the auction committee for selling oil, gas condensate, liquefied gas and coal, Sukhomlyn acted in collusion with Yanukovych, Kurchenko, and former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to misappropriate liquefied gas produced by the state companies Ukrgazvydobuvannia and Ukrnafta worth over UAH 2 billion, Lutsenko said.

"As the head of the auction committee, Sukhomlyn [...] systematically took steps to eliminate competition at specialized auctions, at which liquefied gas was sold to private households, and controlled Kurchenko's scheme, making sure that not part of liquefied gas necessary to households but all liquefied gas that was produced in the country was sold at these specialized auctions to firms affiliated with Kurchenko without competition and was then resold at filling stations," Lutsenko said.

As a result, this liquefied gas was sold at filling stations at a market-based price rather than at a discounted price set by the government, which enabled the group to receive excessive profits in an amount over UAH 5.5 billion, he said.

Lutsenko said that the Holosiyivsky district court in Kyiv arrested Sukhomlyn with a UAH 100 million bail option.

He was detained in Kyiv.

The ex-official did not resist and thought at first that he had been apprehended for a traffic violation, Lutsenko said.

The former official has been charged under Ukrainian Criminal Code Article 255, Part 1 (the establishment of a criminal group) and Article 191 Part 5 (major embezzlement of state property).

Searches are currently under way in four regions of Ukraine, where Sukhomlyn and his relatives have lived and worked.

"The investigation is taking active steps to identify other members of Yanukovych's criminal group staying in Ukrainian territory," Lutsenko added.

Sukhomlyn served as a deputy economic development and trade minister in the government led by Prime Minister Mykola Azarov in 2010-2013. He was a member of the committee for special auctions in which the state companies Ukrgazvydobuvannia and Ukrnafta sold liquefied gas.