Grain "triangle" of Odesa: how customs, tax authorities, and BES overlook billion-dollar schemes

Grain "triangle" of Odesa: how customs, tax authorities, and BES overlook billion-dollar schemes

Odesa "Reimbursement" scheme: How companies avoid taxes under the cover of BES.

- What about the grain?

- All is well! Odesa is moving!

This roughly describes the situation with the export of agricultural products of dubious origin but with undeniable tax evasion and non-return of currency to the country.

Without delving deeply, I’ll explain that this topic exists within a conditional triangle.

Odesa BES - Odesa Customs - Odesa Tax Office.

At the center of this triangle is the Odesa Military Administration with its almost unlimited power, which turns this triangle into a wheel that spins.

And as we know, when something spins in the country, something else gets muddied.

And it gets muddied so that today the amount of non-return of currency to the country amounts to 3.5 billion dollars, and the amount of unpaid taxes is measured in billions of hryvnias.

And although all the bodies report on a relentless fight, in fact, everything is moving.

I will not explain how the Odesa MCA got involved in the control of grain export, as the infamous Order No. 19 by Kiper-Moskalov from August 2023 "On Some Financial Discipline Issues" has already been described in many articles and analytical pieces, almost all agricultural associations came out against the order, and the Public even made a whole investigation last spring.

They clearly outlined how, going beyond its powers, the Odesa MCA took manual control of the foreign economic activities of business entities and coordination of the work of customs-tax and BES.

Theoretically, this was supposed to lead to the de-shadowing of grain exports, but in practice, it led to control over who goes and who doesn’t.

Obviously, customs, tax, and BES do not need additional coordination from the MCA to effectively counter the schemes.

These bodies already have all the necessary tools without external interference, so the issue of fighting illegal exports is definitely not in the realm of additional "coordination" and "agreements" with the Odesa MCA. The issue lies only in the desire.

And in the example of the Odesa BES office, where "agricultural" searches by the State Bureau of Investigation recently took place, it is clearly shown how under the guise of fighting illegal export, real "work" is going on.

Here’s the essence.

When customs and tax authorities have questions about the origin of goods from an agricultural exporter, the Odesa BES is engaged, which has several cases concerning tax evasion by agro-traders. These cases are used as a ticket to export dubious grain.

BES detectives, responding to inquiries from the tax and customs authorities, report that the said exporter indeed figures in criminal cases, but based on voluntary "reimbursement of damages," their goods can be released. After that, the company continues to export schemed grain without further paying taxes.

For example, let’s look at the activities of LLC "Green Light" from Odesa, whose owner/accountant/director is Andriy Aivarovich Uskanov.

According to customs data, in 2024, this company exported grain worth 10.3 billion UAH.

Throughout 2024, in letters dated 19.12.2023, 05.01.2024, 27.03.2024, 09.04.2024, the Odesa region tax office, executing the Kiper-Moskalov order No. 19, informed the Odesa BES and customs about the lack of confirmation of the origin of products being exported by LLC "Green Light."

These letters were attached by BES detectives to criminal case No. 72022160000000004 from 02.12.2022.

However, by a letter dated 17.06.2024, BES detectives informed Odesa customs about the reimbursement to the state budget by the director of LLC "Green Light," Uskanov, of the profit tax for the first quarter of 2024 in the amount of 4,546 thousand UAH.

Based on this letter, questions to the company from customs were lifted, and it executed unobstructed customs clearance and export of agricultural products without paying taxes.

According to preliminary calculations, to date, LLC "Green Light" has understated profit tax by approximately 600 million UAH.

That’s the struggle.

The full list of schemed companies, corruption tariffs, and the list of involved individuals will be in the next post.