The ESBU has secured the reimbursement of over UAH 7 million in unpaid taxes during the sale of apartments in one of Chernivtsi's most popular residential complexes

 The head of a housing construction cooperative in Chernivtsi failed to pay over UAH 7 million in value-added tax to the state budget during the sale of approximately 30 apartments. Detectives of the Territorial Office of the ESBU in the Chernivtsi region exposed the official and ensured full reimbursement of the damages caused to the state.

The investigation established that the head of the cooperative used a scheme under which the actual sale of real estate was masked as equity participation agreements. After the volume of transactions exceeded the threshold established by legislation, the cooperative was legally required to register as a value-added taxpayer. However, the official failed to do so and continued selling real estate without calculating and paying VAT.

As a result of these actions, over UAH 7 million in value-added tax was not remitted to the budget during the period of 2020–2022.

The pre-trial investigation was initiated based on an analytical product prepared by the specialists of the Territorial Office of the ESBU in the Chernivtsi region. The amount of damages caused to the state was confirmed by the conclusion of a forensic economic expert evaluation.

The official of the housing construction cooperative was served a notice of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (intentional evasion of taxes, fees (mandatory payments) that resulted in the loss of large-scale funds to the budget).

The criminal proceedings have been forwarded to court with a petition to release the suspect from criminal liability due to the full payment of the damages caused to the state.

The prosecution was supervised by the prosecutors of the Chernivtsi Regional Prosecutor's Office.