SBI provides details on detention of businessman Kropachov: Fraud in coal sector caused UAH 2 billion damage to state. VIDEO+PHOTOS
The SBI confirmed that SBI officers, in close cooperation with the National Police, detained businessman Vitalii Kropachov, the actual owner of Krasnolimanske LLC, a member of the Ukrdoninvest group of companies.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to the SBI press centre.
Businessman's fraud scheme
As noted, he, through the management of his company and officials of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine and the State Tax Service of Ukraine, caused damage to the state in excess of UAH 2 billion through fraud in the coal sector.
"According to operational information, the Ukrainian billionaire took over the assets of the son of fugitive former President Oleksandr Yanukovych and gained actual control over many state-owned mines and processing plants in the eastern regions," the SBI said.
He, his trustee, the head of the enterprise and an accountant united in a criminal organisation that prevented the operation and forced the state enterprise "Krasnolymanska coal mine" into bankruptcy.
The state-owned enterprise is dependent on Krasnolimanske LLC, as it is unable to extract hard coal from its own seams, which are located lower than the seams mined by the company.
"The businessman decided to take advantage of this situation and tried to force the state-owned enterprise into bankruptcy through fraudulent transactions with tax benefits appropriated by his structures. According to the scheme he developed, all refunds from the budget, in particular through the application of a "zero" VAT rate, were received by commercialists, while the state-owned enterprise artificially accumulated debt to the state. At the same time, the company used the equipment of the state enterprise," the SBI explained.
Within the framework of the developed illegal mechanism, the management of the state-owned enterprise did not take any action to reimburse the businessmen for the "benefits" received, instead increasing the debt to the budget, including through fines and penalties. Meanwhile, it paid all relevant payments to the owner of the commercial structures controlled by the businessman. Money worth billions of hryvnias was further laundered through the sale and purchase of movable and immovable property.
The SBI also notes that the investigation has so far documented four episodes of illegal activity of the criminal group.
Episodes of illegal activity
First, it was established that Krasnolimanske LLC unlawfully applied for a tax benefit - the application of a zero VAT rate on coal - in the period from 1 January 2022 to 31 August 2013 in the total amount of UAH 75 million 105 thousand.
The second episode: members of the criminal organisation deliberately failed to register tax invoices of a state-owned enterprise, which resulted in damage in the form of debt obligations and non-payment of taxes to budgets of various levels in the amount of UAH 2 billion 194 million.
The third episode: the company's management failed to register tax invoices addressed to Krasnolimanske LLC for more than UAH 1 billion between 1 January 2022 and 30 September 2023. As a result, the state-owned enterprise evaded payment of VAT for the period in question in the amount of UAH 169 million 938 thousand.
In addition, as of October 30, 2023, the company's director declared but did not pay the tax liability on VAT to the state budget in the total amount of UAH 1 billion 124 million.
The investigation also established that the officials of Krasnolimanske LLC, on the instructions of the owner, illegally acquired the property in the period 2022-2023 for almost one billion hryvnias with the money received from the above-mentioned illegal actions.
In turn, the Prosecutor General's Office published photos of the searches in this case.
Earlier, Censor.NET reported that on 17 May, coal businessman Kropachev was detained.
Kropachov is the owner of Ukrdoninvest (coal business and gas production). According to European Pravda, Kropachov was an "underboss" in the coal industry for Ihor Kononenko, which was denied by Kropachov. In 2014, he bought out several processing plants in the government-controlled parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and in 2017, he bought the Krasnolymanska coal mine, which eventually became one of the most successful coal enterprises in Ukraine.
The businessman also has assets in the engineering, construction and transport industries. In 2019, he bought Info 24, TVi and Pohoda TV channels, and in December 2021, he bought Era Production, a digital multiplex operator.
In the summer of 2022, Kropachev bought the company Korona Sunrise, which held a digital licence to broadcast Channel 4, and in 2023 launched Ukraine World News on the basis of the banned 112 Ukraine and NewsOne TV channels.
Earlier, law enforcement officers were investigating Kropachov's involvement in a scheme in which a group of people effectively established control over public procurement at Selidovugol, Myrnohradvugol and Pivdenodonbasske No. 1 coal mine in 2016-2018.
These companies purchased various equipment at inflated prices, illegally overpaying over UAH 51 million.
