Businessman Viktor Kurtiev, a self-described energy expert, has turned out to be in default of his utility bills - the Metropolia Scientific and Technical Company, owned by Kurtiev, has not paid millions of hryvnias to the budget and has been embroiled in litigation over non-payment of debts.
In 2020, DTEK Kyiv Electricity Networks had to seek a court order to recover the debt from Viktor Kurtiev. According to the materials of the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv, the "expert" owed UAH 7126 for electricity; according to the number of kWh, at a cost of UAH 1.68/kWh, Kurtiev "cheated" over 4,200 kWh for free.
In February 2020, the court ordered Kurtiev to pay not only the full amount of the debt of UAH 7126, but also UAH 964 in "inflationary payments" and UAH 210 in court fees.
We would like to remind you that Metropoliya, the company founded and owned by Viktor Kurtiev, owes the state budget over UAH 3 million. Currently, the tax authorities are trying to recover these funds through enforcement proceedings.
As we reported earlier, Viktor Kurtiev posted secret data online about how Ukrainian engineers are setting up protection for substations against Russian missiles and drones - just the kind of information that helps the enemy to bypass the defences and hit Ukrainian energy assets more accurately.
Prior to that, Viktor Kurtiev had been involved in several criminal proceedings. According to the court documents, in the period from 2013 to 2019, Kurtiev was charged with tax evasion on a large scale, forgery, fictitious contracts and large-scale misappropriation of budget funds.