The SBI has completed an investigation into a criminal group that caused losses to the state in the amount of UAH 2 billion

Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation completed investigation in criminal proceedings against the actual owner of “Krasnolymanske” LLC, which is part of the “Ukrdoninvest” group of companies. He is accused of organizing a criminal group, as a result of which the state suffered losses of 2 billion hryvnias.

According to the version of the investigation, the entrepreneur, together with a trusted person, the director of the enterprise and the chief accountant, created a criminal group. They paralyzed the activity of the state enterprise “VK Krasnolymanska” and actually brought it to financial failure.

Since the state mine was technically unable to extract coal on its own, it was forced to cooperate with a private company controlled by the accused. Taking advantage of this dependence, he built a scheme using tax benefits, due to which funds did not come to the state budget, and the company itself accumulated debts.

At the same time, the private structure used the property and equipment of the state company without any compensation. The management of the mine did not take any measures to compensate for the damages or stop the illegal activities. As a result, the state bore the costs in the form of fines and penalties, while companies associated with the businessman received systematic payments.

Later, the received funds were legalized through deals with real estate and valuable property.

The accusation concerns the following offenses:

• creation and management of a criminal organization (Parts 1, 2, 3 of Article 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
• tax evasion in particularly large amounts (Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
• legalization of income obtained by criminal means (Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
• bringing the enterprise to bankruptcy (Article 219 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The total maximum sanction under these articles provides up to 15 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. Procedural management in the case is carried out by the Prosecutor General’s Office.