The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) has decided to complete the pretrial investigation into a new episode in the Rotterdam+ formula case, in which 15 people were suspected, including former and current officials of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC).

"On January 16, 2023, the SAPO prosecutor decided to complete the pretrial investigation into the case against 15 people, including former and current officials of the NEURC and officials of a group of private heat generating companies involved in the implementation and application of the so-called Rotterdam+ formula," the SAPO said in a press release on Monday.

According to the document, at present, the prosecutor has instructed the detectives of NABU (the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine) to open the materials for review by the defense side.

"The investigation believes that the Rotterdam + formula included expenses for services that were not actually performed, namely, the transportation of coal of a national producer to thermal power plants from the port in Rotterdam," the SAPO said.

As a result, electricity consumers overpaid more than UAH 39 billion during 2016-2019 due to the corresponding unreasonable increase in electricity tariffs, prosecutors concluded.

"In the course of the investigation of this fact, it turned out that representatives of a group of private heat generating companies persuaded individual members of the NEURC to accept such a calculation formula, and then eventually received superprofits," the SAPO says.

Along with this, other members of the NEURC improperly fulfilled their official duties due to an unfair attitude towards them and voted for the approval of the so-called Rotterdam+ formula, which subsequently entailed grave consequences for the state and public interests, the prosecutor's office added.

As reported, SAPO and NABU on October 26 announced a new episode in the Rotterdam+ formulas case for another UAH 20 billion, within which two former chairmen of the NEURC, six former and three incumbent members of the commission, as well as its incumbent and former employee are suspected.

In addition, the suspects include an incumbent and former official of a group of private heat generating companies.

In the period 2018-2019, the NEURC was first headed by Dmytro Vovk and then Oksana Kryvenko.