Kazan upholds in absentia verdict for diverting 860,000 tons of oil to Ukraine

Today, the in absentia verdict in the case of the criminal organized group of Ukrainian businessmen convicted of stealing Tatarstan oil was recognized as lawful and justified. The Supreme Court of Tatarstan agreed with the qualification of the actions and the punishment for Ukrainian oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky*, Hennadiy Boholyubov, former chairman of the board of Ukrtatnafta CJSC Pavlo Ovcharenko, and businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, Realnoe Vremya was told by the court's press service.

The consideration of the defense's appeals and the prosecution's submission on this verdict took place in a closed session — due to concerns about the possible disclosure of commercial secrets of the victim party.

Recall that in June 2026, the Almetyevsk court found the charges against Ukrainian oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky* and Hennadiy Boholyubov, former chairman of the board of Ukrtatnafta CJSC Pavlo Ovcharenko, and businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky proven, and sentenced each in absentia to 12 years in a strict regime penal colony for organizing a criminal community. For the episode of embezzlement on an especially large scale, the “in absentia” defendants were released from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

In addition, the verdict jointly recovered damages in favor of the state-owned victim company in the amount of $334 million (in ruble equivalent at the date of repayment) and ordered the foreclosure on arrested assets worth 20 billion rubles.

The entry of the in absentia verdict into force means that in the near future, writs of execution will be sent to the bailiffs to recover the damages.

The defendants themselves did not participate in the courts of two instances — all four were placed under arrest in absentia and put on the international wanted list, but Russia was unable to secure their extradition under the current political situation. The interests of the defendants were represented by contracted lawyers during the proceedings.

During the debates, the prosecution requested nearly 15 years of strict regime with fines of 900 thousand rubles for each of the defendants.

According to the investigation's version, which the courts of both instances agreed with, from December 4, 2006, to October 19, 2007, Kolomoisky*, Boholyubov, Yaroslavsky, and Ovcharenko, while outside the Russian Federation, created an organized criminal group. Then, together with individuals whose criminal cases were separated into separate proceedings, they appropriated oil supplied through an intermediary company. Nearly 860 thousand tons of oil worth $439 million were sent by pipeline through a number of intermediaries to the reservoirs of the Ukrtatnafta oil refinery in the Poltava region of Ukraine.

The claims in this transaction resulted in a criminal case 12 years later — in 2021, preliminary data on damages of 4 billion rubles were announced. By the time the case was sent to court, law enforcement estimated the amount stolen at 10.8 billion rubles. Moreover, to ensure recovery in civil suits, officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tatarstan seized assets and shares of Petrus JSC, one of the leaders of the PET packaging market in Russia, believing this company to be affiliated with the in absentia defendants. The list of seized property worth 20.7 billion rubles included non-residential premises, buildings, and land plots in St. Petersburg, cities in the Moscow region, and the Ryazan, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Samara, Bryansk, Kaluga, Nizhny Novgorod, and Omsk regions. Representatives of Petrus also participated in the criminal proceedings.

After the in absentia arrest of Boholyubov and Kolomoisky* by the Vakhitovsky Court of Kazan in November 2022, the latter was detained for crimes in his homeland. In 2023, he was charged with fraud and money laundering of $13 million, with its transfer abroad through controlled banking structures. In 2024, charges of organizing a contract killing of the director of a legal company who refused to comply with demands to cancel and invalidate decisions of the general shareholders' meeting were added. The case of this oligarch reached a Kyiv court at the end of 2025 and has not yet reached a verdict.

In Russia, he was placed on the list of terrorists and extremists back in 2023 — for financial support of neo-Nazi armed groups.

Note

Included by Rosfinmonitoring in the list of persons involved in extremist activity or terrorism.