Court in Odesa rejects seizure of grain terminal property

In Odesa, law enforcement officers tried to block the operation of a grain terminal through tax fraud. However, the judge concluded that the investigation failed to explain why the property should be seized right now.

This is evidenced by the ruling of the Kyiv District Court of Odesa.

The judge dismissed a motion filed by a detective of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) in Odesa region to seize the property of a production and logistics complex and a grain terminal located in Chernivtsi region. The motion was filed as part of a criminal investigation into large-scale tax evasion.

According to the investigation, on December 10, 2025, law enforcement officers inspected non-residential premises, offices, warehouses, silos, containers and sites belonging to the terminal. Law enforcement officers seized a number of documents, including contracts, cargo weighing logs, consignment notes, and agricultural products - more than 1,600 tons of soybeans loaded into 32 railroad cars. According to the investigation, the seized materials could have served as evidence in the tax evasion case.

However, the judge refused to impose the seizure, noting that the motion did not contain a proper justification for the need to restrict the owner's property rights. In particular, the petition documents did not clearly explain why the contracts, journals and invoices were subject to seizure.

The representative of the property owner objected to the motion, and representatives of Vadul-Siretsky Terminal LLC did not appear at the hearing, and did not inform the court of the reasons for their absence. The court returned the motion to the prosecutor and set a 72-hour deadline for remedying the deficiencies.

As part of this criminal proceeding, the prosecution's motion to seize property seized during the inspection of offices, warehouses and grain terminals in the customs control zone of the Odesa seaport was also dismissed. We are talking about the facilities of JSC "SFGCU" and its branch "Odesa Grain Terminal" at Khlibna Harbor, which were to be seized for the same reasons.

And at the end of December last year, an agricultural trader from Odesa region who tried to illegally export soybeans paid more than UAH 14.5 million in unpaid taxes. The suspects used forged documents of origin to create the appearance of legal transactions and export 7,500 tons of soybeans to Turkey and Romania.

Анна Бальчінос