The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (HACC) found the suspicion of misappropriating more than UAH 229 million by abusing official position against ex-head of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy Andriy Kobolev unfounded, his lawyer Oleksiy Nosov has said.

"The conclusion of the investigating judge based on the results of consideration and evaluation of the arguments of the parties: the suspicion brought against Andriy Kobolev is unfounded," he wrote on his Facebook page.

According to him, the prosecutor's office has already filed an appeal against this decision of the HACC. "Therefore, now the HACC Appeals Chamber shall evaluate both our arguments and the conclusions of the investigating judge, and make a final decision on the issue of choosing a preventive measure," the lawyer said.

"Without going too deeply into the legal details of the text of the resolution, I want to share my first impression: the investigating judge, in 12 days of proceedings in the case of the Stockholm bonuses, understood it much deeper than a bunch of NABU detectives and SAPO prosecutors since 2018," Kobolev said.

As reported, on January 19, 2023, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) notified Kobolev of suspicion of abuse of his official position while securing payments bonuses of UAH 229 million for the company's victory in the Stockholm arbitration with Russian Gazprom. According to invetigators, this amount significantly exceeds the normatively determined amounts of such payments (UAH 37.48 million).

The HACC refused to the prosecutor to select a custody status for Kobolev – a detention with an alternative bail of UAH 365 million.