Law enforcers have reported the suspicion of Yevhen Chernyak, an entrepreneur and owner of one of Ukraine’s largest alcoholic holdings, as well as six top managers of his companies. They are suspected of financing Russia’s armed aggression, the Security Service of Ukraine said.
“The security service has collected the evidence base on the owner of one of the largest alcoholic holdings of Ukraine Evgeny Chernyak, who is suspected of financing armed aggression rf. According to the investigation, despite the full-scale invasion, his companies continued to do business with the aggressor country,” the SBU said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Friday night.
Reportedly, during 2022 only in the form of payment of taxes and fees controlled by Chernyak companies transferred to the budget of the Russian Federation about 6 billion in the hryvnia equivalent. The investigation documented that the enterprises of the defendant, located in four countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus, purchased industrial quantities of alcohol and other related products in Russia. During searches in the office premises of the holding in Ukraine, documents and other physical evidence of illegal activities in favor of the aggressor country were found.
“Based on the collected evidence, the investigators of the security service reported on suspicion Chernyak and 6 other top managers of his companies on part 2 of article 28, article 111-2 of the Criminal code of Ukraine (aiding the state-aggressor, committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons)”, – informs the SBU.
Reportedly, the issue of seizure of their private and corporate property for transfer to the ARMA management is now being decided. The investigation was conducted under the procedural guidance of the Kyiv regional Prosecutor’s office.
According to open sources, Chernyak, the founder of the Khortytsa brand, is the head of the supervisory board of the Global Spirits alcohol holding company.
financing Russia's armed aggression, GLOBAL SPIRITS, Khortytsa, SBU, Yevhen Chernyak
The owner of Global Spirits alcohol holding, Yevhen Cherniak, is ready to produce spirit disinfectors and sanitizers free of charge at the holding’s facilities.
“We are ready at our facilities, re-profiling them, to produce spirit sanitizers and disinfectors for medical institutions free of charge,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
At the same time, Cherniak said that this requires permits from the ministry.
“This project is non-profit, we take all the costs of production, only raw materials and permits are from the monopolist [Ukrspyrt state-owned enterprise],” the owner of Global Spirits said.
In response to this initiative of the businessman, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine Taras Vysotsky said that in order to implement this initiative, it is necessary to amend the Tax Code.
“These changes have already been worked out and are awaiting adoption at the next extraordinary plenary session,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Vysotsky said that Ukrspyrt is also ready to instantly switch to the production of disinfectants immediately after the relevant amendments to the law have been introduced.
In turn, Acting Director of Ukrspyrt Serhiy Bleskun supported the idea of the owner of Global Spirits and proposed a plan for its implementation.
“During application, it may be the following solution: to determine the amount of spirit (Ukrspyrt will provide almost any), to remove the excise tax from the volume by the decision of the Verkhovna Rada, to sell it at distilleries without excise (including our one), distilleries dispense spirit or products containing spirit as agreed with the Ministry of Health, distilleries deliver through their own distribution within 24 hours to those in need of this product anywhere in Ukraine,” Bleskun wrote in the comments on the businessman’s post in Facebook.
