Thomas Catenacci
Energy & Environment Reporter
March 24, 2022 1:09 PM ET
A senior Biden administration official handling global energy policy recently held a high-level position at a Ukrainian state-run natural gas firm but resigned citing corruption.
Amos Hochstein, who President Joe Biden appointed to be the State Department’s top adviser for energy security over the summer of 2021, was a member of the energy company Naftogaz’s supervisory board. Hochstein took the position in 2017 after he said government officials persuaded him to accept the offer.
“When fears abounded in late 2017 that Ukraine’s efforts to dismantle corruption were weakening, U.S. and foreign officials encouraged me to accept the (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s) request, and join the Naftogaz board to reinforce, and help protect, the progress that CEO Andriy Kobolyev and his team had made, and continue with additional critical reforms,” Hochstein wrote in an editorial published by the Kyiv Post in October 2020.
Since 2014, the U.S. has led an effort to reduce corruption in Ukraine’s government from within, he wrote. His role at Naftogaz was a part of this effort, Hochstein said.
But Hochstein eventually resigned from the board in 2020, writing in the Kyiv Post editorial that the attempt to fight corruption at the state-run energy giant “was resisted at every step of the way.”
“I can no longer stand by and be used to endorse this negative trend, and it’s why I must voluntarily leave the board,” he wrote. “I do so with regret but also with pride for what has been accomplished.”
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https://dailycaller.com/2022/03/24/joe-hunter-biden-burisma-amos-hochstein-naftogaz-ukraine/
