According to the materials of the criminal case, investigated by the State Security Service of Ukraine (SSSU), on importing the liquefied gas to about 15 companies with massive tax evasion, the State Fiscal Service (SFS) completed audits and inspections of some liquefied gas traders, confirming the violations, according to First Deputy Chief of SSSU Pavel Demchyna, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
“What regards the results of this criminal proceeding, the case is not in the court: it is very large; there is a lot of something there for economy. But for some companies, which were part of this scheme, the audits and tax inspections were already completed as per materials of the criminal proceeding. In particular, for one commercial entity, UAH 1.3 bln were charged for payment to the budget”, he said.
Demchyna noted that as soon as all procedural actions were completed, the prosecutor’s office will approve the indictments and will file charges.
“In 2017, the liquefied gas price increased; it happened not for one day – after we took some measures, it happened routinely from May and even April. The proof of that was the traders’ correspondence, published in mass media, by days, as the price increased and what was the reason: the reason was exclusively the desire to earn”, Demchyna claimed.
It should be reminded that in early June 2017, SSSU conducted several dozens of sanctioned searches in the offices and by place of residence of liquefied gas importers. “In their schemes, these companies evaded value added taxes through the so-called “tax mixers”, cashed money by using conversion centers, changed the price and the quality of goods”, the representative of the agency noted then.
According to him, the products were imported from Russian and Belarus; the controlled offshore structures were used for that; the companies, registered for nominees, were actively involved in the schemes, and some facts pointed to the connection of some firms with escaped Ukrainian businessperson Sergei Kurchenko. The prosecutor’s office charges him with creating the criminal organization, evading taxes in especially large amounts and abusing office that allowed him to monopolize the liquefied gas market during the presidency of Victor Yanukovich.
