The Security Service of Ukraine and the Bureau of Economic Security exposed a large-scale criminal scheme for tax evasion during the export of our grain from the Black Sea ports. This was reported by the press services of the SBU and BEB.

The investigators found out that more than ten high-ranking officials were involved in the organization of fraud, including the deputy head of one of the departments of the State Customs Service of Ukraine, as well as the leadership of the Odessa customs.

" Because of this, the state did not receive hundreds of millions of hryvnia,"

According to BEB, the estimated damage for 2022 due to non-declaration of income from these operations may be UAH 5.2 billion.

For the scheme, its participants attracted more than 370 commercial structures that have signs of fictitious. Thanks to them, businessmen massively bought wheat from private farmers, agricultural enterprises and large agricultural holdings..

" And only after that they sold the grain to exporters for sale abroad,"

As noted, BEB employees discovered even earlier that risky companies were used in export operations, and warned the State Customs Service about this in writing.. However, they did not pay attention to the comments, allowing the sale of more than a million tons of grain by merchants abroad..

According to the investigation, wheat was exported through the grain terminals of the Odessa, Chernomorsky and Yuzhny ports - all in the Odessa region.

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Law enforcement officers have already conducted 30 searches in the administrative premises of the central office of the State Customs Service, Odessa customs, ports and homes of employees involved in the case.. Draft notes, electronic documents, as well as telephones and computers with evidence of the implementation of the scheme were found there..

Now the issue of declaring suspicion to malefactors and choosing a measure of restraint for them in the framework of criminal proceedings regarding abuse of power or official position is being resolved..

Law enforcement agencies continue to investigate to establish all the circumstances of the offense, clarify the damage to the state budget and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Earlier it was reported that NABU and SAP exposed an organized criminal group of four people, which during 2019 was implementing a corruption scheme for selling seized property at the disposal of ARMA at a reduced cost.. This caused damage for 485 million hryvnias..

Officials who steal during the war are internal enemies, if only because they threaten the Western support the country needs. Next year they will make every effort to destroy NABU / SAP. These people will block the restoration of electronic declarations and access to state registers. The judicial mafia will try to block the launch of the updated High Council of Justice. But they won't succeed. Why? Read the article by the Chairman of the Board of the Anti-Corruption Action Center Vitaliy Shabunin “Forecast-2023: Ukrainian corruption under the microscope of the West”.