Searches were conducted in Odesa region due to tax fraud worth 18 billion

Detectives of the Bureau of Economic Security and other law enforcement officers conducted a series of searches in several regions of Ukraine - Kyiv, Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava, and Chernihiv regions.

According to the BES press service, they were conducted as part of a tax evasion scheme integrated into international financial channels of the European Union and the United Arab Emirates.

About 500 controlled companies were used to implement the scheme. More than 200 companies minimized their VAT liabilities through fictitious transactions for further cashing out and legalization of funds. The turnover reached up to UAH 18 billion.

According to the investigation, the organizer of the scheme is currently hiding abroad. He involved other members of the group. They formed a fictitious VAT credit through paper transactions without actual delivery of goods or services. Then they cashed the funds or concealed their origin through financial transactions.

They used a network of controlled structures - more than 100 fictitious enterprises and about 400 individual entrepreneurs. Through them, fictitious transactions were executed, which allowed client companies to reduce the amount of taxes to be paid.

They also organized a mechanism for withdrawing funds abroad. For this purpose, they used more than 20 controlled non-resident companies registered in the European Union and the United Arab Emirates. The funds were transferred through accounts and a network of exchangers both in Ukraine and abroad, in particular in European countries. Later, they were either withdrawn in cash or converted into crypto assets to complicate the tracing of financial flows.

In addition, the scheme participants provided services for legalization of goods of dubious origin. In particular, these included fuels and lubricants and oil products, which were given signs of legal origin through fictitious documents. The scheme has been in place since at least 2020.

According to some established facts alone, tax evasion in the amount of over UAH 56 million was documented. Currently, the organizer, CFO, accountants, recruiter, representatives of the real sector of the economy and other participants of the scheme have been served a notice of suspicion of creating and participating in a criminal organization, tax evasion, entering false information in documents for state registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, forgery and use of forged documents, seals and stamps. The organizer was served a notice of suspicion in absentia. Measures are being taken to put him on the international wanted list. Four people were detained and three were chosen as a preventive measure in custody.

Кирило Бойко