The Yabko chain paid over 60 million hryvnias to the budget after the exposure of a scheme involving sole proprietors

The Yabko chain paid over 60 million hryvnias to the budget after the exposure of a scheme involving sole proprietors

The “Yabko” chain of electronics stores, which for years siphoned off funds and sold counterfeit products, returned only about 60 million UAH in unpaid taxes to the state after the scheme of artificial business fragmentation was uncovered.

The investigation established that throughout 2025 sales were conducted through 58 controlled individual entrepreneurs (FOPs), allowing the company to avoid paying VAT. The entrepreneurs did not carry out any actual independent activity — all finances and reporting were managed single-handedly by the company’s director. Proceeds from the sale of equipment did not go to the company’s accounts but were distributed among the accounts of the recruited FOPs, enabling them to bypass value-added tax.

The prosecutor’s office reported that as a result of this scheme the state budget failed to receive more than 60 million UAH in VAT. The losses caused have now been fully compensated.

After the compensation, prosecutors filed a motion with the court to release the suspect from criminal liability due to the full repayment of the losses.

The chain’s official website contains no information about the ultimate beneficial owner. In April 2025, “Yabko” stated that since 2024 the company had resumed operations through a new legal entity — LLC “Specialtech”.

According to YouControl data, the owners of LLC “Specialtech” are Anna Bryzhak and Mykola Kakhnych.

Until mid-2024, Bryzhak headed LLC “V-113”, which until 2023 belonged to the group of companies of the family of former oligarch Petro Dyminskyi. In 2023, Dyminskyi’s daughter Zhanna transferred control of this enterprise to Anna Bryzhak.

An analysis of trademark registrations shows that the owner of the “Yabko” trademark is LLC “Intellectual Property”, while the applicant for registration is the aforementioned Mykola Kakhnych.

Kakhnych also owns LLC “City-Development Group”, registered in Lviv at the address of a business center on Danylyshyna Street, 6.

It is noteworthy that the previous legal entity number of LLC “City-Development Group” belongs to LLC “V-Retail” — a company that is part of Petro Dyminskyi’s family group. Both firms are registered in the same business center on Danylyshyna Street.

In addition, Kakhnych’s daughter Sofia is the owner of LLC “D-6”, which engages in real estate leasing. In 2024, the company acquired the succession rights of the reorganized company LLC “TC Magnus”, which is also linked to Dyminskyi’s sphere of influence.