One of Ukraine’s largest companies is under investigation for financial fraud and support of separatists
The Prosecutor General's Office uncovered the scheme of a particularly large tax evasion and the illegal withdrawal of billions of hryvnias abroad, including for financing of terrorism, as reported by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko on his Facebook page.
According to him, 1000 law enforcement officers conducted searches and other immediate investigative actions in the offices of Ukraine’s largest distributor of tobacco products, TEDIS Ukraine.
"The economic crimes department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, together with the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, with operational support of the National Police units, revealed a scheme of particularly large tax evasion and illegal transfer of billions of hryvnias abroad, including for financing of terrorism. Pre-trial investigation found that from 2012, a Russian citizen Kesaev was one of the actual owners of the monopoly distributor of tobacco products Megapolis Ukraine LLC (currently TEDIS Ukraine). He was previously sanctioned by the NSDC (National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine) and banned from transferring funds out of Ukraine," reported Lutsenko.
Lutsenko added that “following Kesaev’s orders, the key positions in LLC TEDIS were given to persons who coordinated all their decisions with a member of the board of directors of the Russian V.A. Degtyarev Plant, one of the suppliers of weapons for the Luhansk and Donetsk separatist republics.”
“Despite the ban by NSDC and NBU (National Bank of Ukraine), during 2015-2017, 2.5 billion were transferred out of Ukraine through the accounts of intermediary companies,” Prosecutor General said.
According to him, the firm also received assistance from certain government bodies which helped Kesaev’s enterprise to maintain its monopoly position.
According to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, 100 searches have been carried out all over Ukraine.
TEDIS Ukraine controls the entire market for the distribution of tobacco products in the country. Its services are used by all four major producers: Philip Morris Ukraine, JTI Ukraine, Imperial Tobacco Ukraine and BAT Ukraine, which occupy 98% of the cigarette market. In 2014 and 2015, 100% of cigarettes produced in Ukraine were sold to TEDIS (earlier Megapolis). This allowed TEDIS Ukraine to become one of the top 20 largest Ukrainian companies.