Kobolev's friends demanding return of more than UAH 35 million, which they paid as bail for him

Friends of the ex-chairman of the board of the Naftogaz of Ukraine national joint-stock company, Andrii Kobolev, are asking him to return to them more than UAH 35 million, which they paid as a bail for him.

This is stated in court documents, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

In January of this year, Kobolev's lawyers appealed to the High Anti-Corruption Court with a request to reduce the bail amount.

In the justification of the motion, one of the lawyers noted that a preventive measure was applied to Kobolev in the form of a bail of UAH 107,127,044.78 with the imposition of a number of obligations.

Part of the bail in the amount of UAH 101,831,150 for Kobolev was made by Concord Consulting LLC, the founder of which is businessman Ihor Mazepa.

Kobolev’s defense noted that the funds contributed by the company are not their own funds, but were collected by organizing a fundraiser among those willing on the condition of further return.

At the present time, persons who provided their own funds to Concord Consulting LLC began to contact him for the purpose of returning the funds.

The corresponding appeals became the basis for the LLC's letters to Kobolev and the High Anti-Corruption Court with a request to return part of the bail paid for him.

The lawyer asked to reduce the bail amount by UAH 35,590,000.

The materials also say that Kobolev's friends are asking to return the funds they provided due to financial changes in their lives.

Kobolev himself stated that there is no way to return the required amount of funds to the pledgers due to the blocking of his foreign accounts, the accounts of his ex-wife and mother.

Regarding the bail, the prosecutor noted that the management of Concord Consulting LLC independently made the decision to be the pledger for Kobolev and independently resolved the issue of finding the necessary amount of money.

"When raising funds, the company was noted that they may be returned after the end of the case, or at the request of individuals, they may be directed to a charitable fund. Given that, the demands of third parties to the company regarding the return of money are not grounds for reducing the amount of the preventive measure applied to the accused," the court documents state.

After analyzing the explanations, on January 9, the court made a decision to refuse to grant of Kobolev's defense attorney's request to change the preventive measure.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the head of the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense, Kyrylo Budanov, personally appealed to the court to allow the ex-head of Naftogaz, Andrii Kobolev, to leave the country. However, the court refused.