The Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine conducted large-scale searches at one of the largest local retail chains in the Poltava region. The operational measures were aimed at documenting the circumstances of a probable criminal offense related to tax evasion.
This is reported by Finway
The Evasion Scheme and Involvement of Individual Entrepreneurs
According to law enforcement, the company that owns over 400 stores in the Poltava, Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, and Kirovohrad regions organized a complex scheme of “business fragmentation.” More than 3,500 individual entrepreneurs (IEs) were involved in implementing this scheme. Some of them were registered as employees, while others were registered as third parties, including students and pensioners. In reality, these individuals performed the functions of regular employees but were legally registered as entrepreneurs.
“This concerns the largest local grocery store chain in Poltava, which has over 400 stores and operates in seven regions of Ukraine, including Poltava, Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, and Kirovohrad,” the statement said.
Consequences of the Scheme and Seized Evidence
Some employees were also involved in the criminal scheme, handling the registration of IEs, maintaining so-called “black” accounting, organizing salary payments in envelopes, and ensuring that the income of entrepreneurs did not exceed the limits set by the state. This distribution of business allowed them to avoid paying taxes applicable to legal entities, leading to significant losses for the state budget — amounting to millions of hryvnias.
During the searches, detectives seized a large number of documents, bank cards, computer equipment, rough notes, unaccounted cash, and other information carriers that confirm the illegal activities of the organized group. The pre-trial investigation is currently ongoing, and law enforcement is establishing all the circumstances of the case.
Additionally, the Bureau of Economic Security recently uncovered an organized group that illegally appropriated funds allocated for the procurement of equipment for the military. The total amount of losses in that case exceeded 5.6 million UAH.
