Russian oligarch Shelkov is suspected of organizing a scheme by which Russia received Ukrainian titanium for the war

Russian sanctioned oligarch Mikhail Shelkov organized a scheme according to which Russia received titanium-containing concentrates worth almost 90 million hryvnias. These products are used for the needs of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Russian defense-industrial complex.

This was reported by the press services of the Economic Security Bureau (BES) and the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office (OGP).

The BES detectives established that the oligarch created an organized criminal group, which included the director of the “Demurinsky Mining and Processing Plant” LLC, the beneficiary and the director of the Austrian company.

According to the investigation, during 2020-2021 Mikhail Shelkov organized deliveries of strategic Ukrainian products to Russian companies working for the war. To hide this, the Austrian company received the products under contracts, but almost immediately they were shipped to Russian enterprises. The latter paid the full price to the accounts of the Austrian company at market prices, while the latter paid the Ukrainian company at lower prices.

This led to an underestimation of the companyʼs profit, and therefore the state budget of Ukraine did not receive nearly 18.5 million hryvnias in taxes.

The Russian oligarch was informed of the suspicion of war financing, tax evasion and money laundering (Part 4 of Article 110-2, Part 3 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 28, Part 3 of Article 212, Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Detectives informed the former general director of the “Demurinsky Mining and Processing Plant” LLC that he was suspected of war financing and money laundering (Part 4 of Article 110-2, Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The pre-trial investigation is ongoing.

• Oligarch Mikhail Shelkov has owned the mining and beneficiation plant since 2012, when it was part of the Russian state corporation “Rostekh”. The company is one of the worldʼs largest producers of titanium. Previously, all corporate rights, property complex, vehicles, money in the combineʼs bank accounts were seized, and then transferred to the ownership of Ukraine.
• In June 2023, SBU gathered evidence of Shelkovʼs involvement in the covert supply of Ukrainian titanium raw materials to Russia, where they were used to make “Kalibr” missiles.
• In June 2021, NSDC imposed sanctions against Mikhail Shelkov as deputy chairman of the board of directors of the “VSMPO-Avisma”, the worldʼs largest producer of titanium for the aerospace industry.