Law enforcement officers exposed a criminal organization that caused losses to the state of over 2 billion hryvnias. As the investigation found out, it was headed by the owner of coal enterprises.
The Prosecutor Generalʼs Office and the National Police write about this.
We are talking about the so-called overseer of the coal industry in the Donetsk region — the owner of the “Ukrdoninvest” group of companies, the director and chief accountant of “Krasnolymanske” LLC, as well as the businessmanʼs accountant.
All of them were detained on suspicion of creating, leading and participating in a criminal organization, tax evasion in particularly large amounts, legalization of property, bringing a state-owned enterprise to a state of permanent financial insolvency.
The investigation established that the suspects, led by a coal businessman and under the cover of law enforcement agencies, created a tax evasion scheme for almost 1.2 billion hryvnias. They legalized the money by buying real estate and cars, including a Rolls-Royce. In total, it was possible to legalize more than 991 million hryvnias.
Also, those involved concluded disadvantageous contracts in advance and blocked the extraction of hard coal, which was the main activity of the company.
At one time, the suspected businessman received part of the assets of Viktor Yanukovychʼs family as an "inheritance" and control over all state-owned mines and beneficiation factories in the eastern regions. Managers of state mines who disagreed with the policies of the new curator were dismissed, and those who did not contradict the businessmanʼs schemes were put in their places.
The figure bought out a controlling stake in “Krasnolymanske” LLC and gained access to coal mining in the Krasnolymanske Mine, which is one of the largest coal mining enterprises in Ukraine. However, "Krasnolymanske" LLC blocked the work of the state enterprise, due to which SE "VK "Krasnolymanske" lost almost a billion hryvnias in profit every year.
Subcontracts were concluded between the state and private enterprise, according to which the mine was supposed to provide coal mining for a commercial structure that received money for it. The mine fulfilled its obligations, but the counterparty did not, so the production costs fell on the state enterprise. As a result, the arrears from wages to miners, payments for energy resources, etc., grew.
Currently, debts for coal mining services exceed 2.2 billion hryvnias, for salaries — 147 million, for electricity — another 1.1 billion.