Detectives of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine exposed a group of persons in the act of deliberately evading the payment of value added tax and customs duties in particularly large amounts. The activities of the mentioned group led to the fact that funds in the amount of more than 14 million UAH were not received by the State Budget of Ukraine. A conspiracy with officials of the Transcarpathian Customs Service of the State Customs Service was also exposed. One of the citizens was informed about the suspicion. Phones, laptops and accessories of a well-known brand that were illegally imported into Ukraine in the amount of approximately UAH 100 million were seized.

The investigation established that the mentioned group of persons, according to a pre-developed criminal plan for the purpose of illegal personal enrichment, organised the import of goods in violation of established customs rules for the movement of goods across the customs border of Ukraine.

The organiser of the scheme agreed with certain persons in the territory of the neighbouring country who provided the driver with customs (waybills, invoices, customs guarantee documents) and other documents necessary for the export of the specified goods from another country to Ukraine.

In order to realise the criminal intention of hiding the cargo from customs control and customs clearance, the driver, with the assistance of certain officials of the Transcarpathian Customs Service of the State Customs Service, chose the "green corridor" traffic lane at the checkpoint, which indicates the absence of goods that are subject to mandatory written declaration and taxation. The employees of the State Customs Service in turn registered another vehicle with a different registration number outwardly similar to the vehicle that was used to transport the cargo and through inaction ensured that no control measures were taken to verify the citizen's compliance with customs rules.

Thus a variety of equipment of a well-known world brand entered the territory of Ukraine without declaration, namely, mobile phones of various models and characteristics in total number of more than 2,000 pieces, more than 200 laptops, watches of the same brand, headphones, tablets, etc.

In the course of the investigation, additional evidence was also obtained, confirming the previous conspiracy of the persons.

As a result of the committed actions a group of persons in violation of the requirements of Art. 36, 206 of the Tax Code of Ukraine, Article 266, 289, 295, 374 of the Customs Code of Ukraine on 30.06.2022 committed a criminal offence provided for in Part 3 of Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and evaded payment to the State Budget of Ukraine of value added tax and customs duties amounting to almost UAH 14 million.

In addition officials of the Transcarpathian Customs checkpoint of the State Customs Service, Western Regional Department (Lviv) of the State Border Service, committed official falsification of documents by drawing up obviously false official documents, entering obviously false information into official documents, committed by a prior conspiracy by a group of persons who in advance, i.e. before the beginning of the criminal offence agreed on its joint commission.

Currently the driver of the car has been notified of the suspicion of having committed a criminal offence provided for in Part 3 of Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (deliberate evasion of the payment of value added tax, customs duties, which resulted in the actual non-receipt of funds to the State Budget of Ukraine in particularly large amounts, perpetrated by a group of persons following a prior conspiracy).

The pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings is carried out by detectives of the main unit of detectives of the ESBU under the procedural guidance of the prosecutors of the Office of the Prosecutor General and the operational support of the employees of the Security Service of Ukraine, in cooperation with the police officers of the GUNP in Zakarpattia region.