Kyiv Court Lifts Seizure of Smuggler's Cigarette Equipment

A judge of Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi District Court has lifted the seizure of property belonging to Odesa businessman Vadym Alperin, who is called the king of smuggling in the media.

It is about the equipment for the production of cigarettes by Orion Tobacco, which was seized last year by the Bureau of Economic Security, according to a TSN investigation.

"The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv has repeatedly canceled the arrest imposed on the cigarette production line, which is the direct instrument of the crime and returned it to the owner. Contrary to the decision of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, which confirmed the legality of the arrests," BES detective Volodymyr Hurin told journalists.

The BES employees transferred the property to the National Agency for Finding, Tracing and Management of Assets (ARMA).

Back in July 2022, detectives found that the company, which had an official license to manufacture tobacco products, was engaged in the illegal production of cigarettes together with controlled companies. These cigarettes were sold with counterfeit excise stamps.

During the pre-trial investigation, law enforcement officers conducted a series of searches at the company's warehouses and production facilities in Odesa region. As a result, they seized equipment for the production and packaging of tobacco products, as well as more than 1.2 million packs of cigarettes with counterfeit excise stamps, with a total value of about UAH 70 million.

Experts found out that these counterfeit cigarettes were manufactured on the same lines as official products. The court proceedings in the case lasted from the beginning of 2023, after which the seized line was arrested. The equipment has now been transferred to the ARMA for further sale in accordance with Ukrainian law.

According to the Liga newspaper, the company in question is Orion Tobacco, which is associated with Odesa businessman Vadym Alperin. It should be noted that Vadym Alperin is involved in the case of importing goods into Ukraine at a reduced customs value and with forged documents. As a result, the state lost almost UAH 64 million. In November 2019, Alperin was detained by the NABU and later released on bail of UAH 70 million. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly called the businessman "one of the godfathers of smuggling." Currently, Vadym Alperin is deprived of Ukrainian citizenship and is under sanctions by the National Security and Defense Council.

Earlier, the BES detectives exposed a resident of Odesa who was storing counterfeit cigarettes of well-known brands in a warehouse. The total value of the goods is almost UAH 6 million.

Another resident of Odesa organized underground production of cigarettes and then sold them on local markets. During the searches, the SBU seized goods worth over UAH 11 million.

The BES detectives also served suspicion notices to four people who organized the illegal production of cigarettes on an industrial scale in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi.

Кирило Бойко