SBU Disrupts Scheme Supplying Ukrainian Goods to Russia for $1 Million

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has reported the elimination of a scheme to circumvent sanctions on the supply of Ukrainian products to the aggressor country.

According to the SBU, as a result of complex measures, seven members of a criminal group were detained in Odesa: the founder and top managers of a local company that sold electrical equipment to Russia for military facilities of the Russian Federation.

We are talking about high-tech devices that ensure the protection and uninterrupted operation of power grids. It was established that during 2023, the offenders covertly supplied several batches of domestic goods to Russia totaling more than USD 1 million.

The organizers involved controlled companies outside of Ukraine, in particular in the Middle East, to implement the fraud. Thus, the products of the Ukrainian manufacturer were first exported to foreign intermediaries, and then they forwarded them to Russian customers.

Among them are sanctioned Russian companies that supply electrical equipment for the needs of the aggressor country's Ministry of Defense, in particular for powering the occupiers' military bases.

According to the investigation, the founder of the Odesa-based company involved six of his subordinates in the fraud, including the commercial director, two department heads and an accountant. During the searches of the suspects' places of work and residence, the SBU found documents, mobile phones and computers used in the illegal activity.

Based on the obtained evidence, the SBU investigators served the detainees a notice of suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• Part 1 of Article 111-2 (aiding the aggressor state)
• Article 255, parts 1 and 2 (creation, leadership of a criminal organization and participation in it).

The detainees are in custody. They face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.

Кирило Бойко