Russian director of Lukoil refinery, placed under judicial control

Newsroom 07/10/2014 | 13:59

Andrey Bogdanov, general director of SC Petrotel Lukoil SA Ploiesti, has been placed under judicial control and is being investigated for tax evasion and money laundering, according to representatives of the Ploiesti Court of Appeal.

According to the prosecutors, investigations continue to collect the necessary evidence and to identify the perpetrators. Andrey Bogdanov is the only name indicated by the prosecutors to be under criminal investigation.

The Lukoil refinery in Ploiesti had its oil reserves seized by the authorities on Monday, but on Tuesday they announced the sequester has been partly lifted “in order to allow SC Petrotel-Lukoil SA Ploiesti to deploy its current activity under normal conditions and to be able to pay salaries and state obligations”.

Andrey Bogdanov was appointed general director of the refinery on June 27, 2011. Previously, from 1994-2008, he worked at the Lukoil-Nijegorodnefteorgsintez SRL refinery, where on 2008 he was promoted to the position of general director.

Bogdanov was called in for hearings last week, while at the same time prosecutors searched the refinery’s headquarters for accounting documents. Lukoil and the refinery management team is suspected of tax evasion and money laundering, with EUR 230 million in damages.