United Energy Systems of Ukraine

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United Energy Systems of Ukraine abbrieviated to UESU is one of the largest energy companies in Ukraine, Europe. The company deals with energy as well as metals. They are the largest gas importer in the region. Since 2000 the company has been affected by a series of scandals.

The company was reorganized by Yuliya Tymoshenko (current Prime Minister of Ukraine) in 1995 from Ukrainian Oil Company^[1]^[2]. At the time it primarily managed Russian natural-gas supplies to energy-starved Ukraine under then-Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko. Her ties to Lazarenko, who was arrested in 1999 and convicted last year in the U.S. on charges of corruption and money laundering prompted a series of investigations, which in turn led to a series of scandals from 2000 to 2004^[3].

[edit] Tymoshenko scandals

In August 2000, Olexandr Tymoshenko, a member of the board of the UESU was arrested by the Ukrainian police. He is the husband of Yuliya Tymoshenko. Together with Valery Falkovych, first deputy general director of the corporation, Tymoshenko was officially accused of embezzling 800,000 US dollars in public funds through the export of rolled metal to Asia during the 1990s^[4]. Yuliya Tymoshenko also served from 1995 to 1997 as the director of the company and her position as deputy prime minister ended in January 2004, just as her campaign to introduce deep reforms into the energy sector began to affect the energy sector. Like her husband, she was arrested in mid-February and sent to prison for several months on corruption charges ^[5]. Kyiv's Appeal Court cancelled lodging of criminal proceedings against her and and her husband in May 2004 ^[6] and in September 2005 Russian prosecutors cancelled her arrest warrant ^[7].