Two officials from the state enterprises "Service" and "Maritime Administration of the Black Sea Fishing Port" have been notified of suspicion. In 2020, they transferred state tankers and a boat to a private company for 16 million hryvnias less than the market value. 

The officials entered into lease agreements with the private company and indicated amounts in the contracts that were several times lower than the actual market valuations. In fact, the company used state assets for a pittance.

To create the appearance of legality, they even involved a controlled appraisal company that prepared knowingly false reports on the value of the vessels. As a result, the state vessels "devalued" several times:

the tanker "Tamansky" from over 35 million UAH to 4.2 million UAH;

"Vostochny" – from 19 million to 3.6 million UAH;

"Yuzhny" – from 16 million to 1.8 million UAH;

the boat "Sadko-2" – from over 1.2 million to 396 thousand UAH.

The actions of the officials have been classified under part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, namely abuse of office that led to severe consequences.

The pre-trial investigation is being conducted by the Main Investigative Department of the National Police under the procedural guidance of the Office of the Prosecutor General.

Note: according to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a court verdict.