United Energy Systems of Ukraine, abbreviated to UESU , was a natural gas

Natural gas

Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

 trading company in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. In mid of 2000s, it was the largest natural gas importer in the region. Since 2000 the company had been affected by a series of scandals.

Predecessor of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine was established in 1989 by Yulia Tymoshenko

Yulia Tymoshenko

Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko , née Grigyan , born 27 November 1960, is a Ukrainian politician. She was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 24 January to 8 September 2005, and again from 18 December 2007 to 4 March 2010. She placed third in Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful...

 as a family cooperative in Dnipropetrovsk

Dnipropetrovsk

Dnipropetrovsk or Dnepropetrovsk formerly Yekaterinoslav is Ukraine's third largest city with one million inhabitants. It is located southeast of Ukraine's capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central region of the country...

. In 1991, it was set up as the Ukrainian Petrol Company, which sold gasoline

Gasoline

Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...

 to farmers in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine, the most important industrial region of the country. Its administrative center is Dnipropetrovsk....

. In 1995, the company was reorganized the United Energy Systems of Ukraine. At the time it primarily managed Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n natural-gas supplies to Ukraine under Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko

Pavlo Lazarenko

Pavlo Ivanovych Lazarenko is a former Ukrainian politician and former Prime Minister who, in August 2006, was convicted and sentenced to prison in the United States for money laundering, wire fraud and extortion...

. Her ties to Lazarenko, who was arrested in 1999 and convicted 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.

Tymoshenko scandals

In August 2000, Olexandr Tymoshenko, a member of the board of the UESU and the husband of Yulia Tymoshenko, was arrested by the Ukrainian police. Together with Valery Falkovych, first deputy general director of the corporation, Tymoshenko was officially accused of embezzling US$800,000 in public funds through the export of rolled metal to Asia during the 1990s. Yulia Tymoshenko served from 1995 to 1997 as the director of the company. Like her husband, Yulia Tymoshenko was arrested and she staid under arrest for several weeks on forgery and gas smuggling charges. Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

's Appeal Court canceled lodging of criminal proceedings against her and her husband in May 2004 and in September 2005 Russian prosecutors canceled her arrest warrant.

Former head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Valentyn Nalyvaichenko claimed in 2010 that a document detailing the role of FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Semyon Mogilevich in the gas trade in the mid-1990s including ties with top officials close to Tymoshenko was destroyed by his predecessor Oleksandr Turchynov

Oleksandr Turchynov

Oleksandr Valentynovych Turchynov is a Ukrainian politician, a screenwriter, a Doctor of Economic Studies. He also was acting Prime Minister after former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's government was dismissed on March 3, 2010...

. Turchynov called such claims an "elaborate ruse" to discredit his close ally, Tymoshenko.

The company was dissolved in 2009.

The Ukrainian security service opened a criminal investigation into the embezzlement of $405 million by Energy Systems of Ukraine early July 2011.