More than 60 companies and shadow operations with agricultural products: BEB announced a large-scale scheme

Detectives of the Bureau of Economic Security together with the Cyber Police exposed a large-scale conversion center in the Kyiv region, which, according to the investigation, served shadow operations in the agricultural sector. The scheme used more than 60 controlled enterprises with signs of fictitiousness, and part of the received funds was converted into cash and virtual assets.

This was reported by the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine.

According to the investigation, the scheme participants helped real sector enterprises to hide income and reduce tax liabilities.

The basis of the conversion center's activity was trade in agricultural products. According to the BEB, they were purchased from producers for cash without reflecting the operations in accounting and tax records.

Then, for the sale of goods in Ukraine or their export, documents on behalf of controlled companies were used. According to law enforcement officers, false information about the origin, value and characteristics of products was entered into these documents.

They created a fictitious history of the goods' origin

The BEB explained that with the help of such a scheme, agricultural products received a formal history of origin, necessary for further legal sale or export.

In fact, according to the investigation, the goods were initially purchased bypassing official accounting. Passing them through a network of controlled enterprises allowed hiding the real income of the operation participants and reducing the amounts of taxes that should have gone to the budget.

In total, detectives identified a network of more than 60 enterprises with signs of fictitiousness, which could be used for documenting such operations.

Part of the funds was converted into virtual assets

According to the BEB, the funds received from the sale of agricultural products were taken out of the shadow economy by the scheme participants.

Part of the money was converted into cash, and part was converted into virtual assets. Law enforcement officers believe that in this way the organizers tried to conceal the origin of the funds and avoid financial monitoring procedures.

At the same time, the BEB does not yet report the total turnover of the conversion center, the amount of unpaid taxes, or the sum of funds converted into virtual assets.

The investigation establishes the clients of the conversion center

The pre-trial investigation is ongoing. Detectives are establishing the full circle of persons involved in organizing the scheme, as well as real sector enterprises that could use the services of the conversion center.

Law enforcement officers are also studying the movement of funds and their origin.

Operational support of the investigation is provided by the Cyber Police Department of the National Police, procedural guidance is provided by the Kyiv Regional Prosecutor's Office.

The BEB reminded that according to the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is considered innocent until their guilt is proven in the manner prescribed by law and confirmed by a court conviction.

Based on materials from: Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine