The State Tax Service of Ukraine (STS) has uncovered evidence of a coordinated network of over 2,300 companies that effectively ceased to exist after conducting foreign economic transactions totaling over 198 billion UAH, reported Lesya Karnaukh, Acting Head of the STS.
“It took quite some time to uncover this scheme. Its participants are becoming increasingly inventive in their methods of concealing violations. To determine the riskiness of the transactions being conducted, we analyzed data sets using risk-based approaches… Such a concentration of management functions is atypical for real business and indicates signs of the organized use of such individuals as nominal managers,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
According to the agency head, the relevant data was obtained based on an analysis of information from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) regarding violations of payment deadlines for the period from 2024 to the first quarter of 2026. The majority of transactions involved the export of goods: 1,243 companies carried out exports totaling over 176 billion UAH, while 555 companies conducted import transactions totaling over 18 billion UAH.
Lesya Karnaukh specified that 73% of the offending companies and 78% of the total volume of transactions are concentrated in seven regions: Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as in Kyiv. Tax authorities recorded the mass re-registration of hundreds of companies under the same individuals, as well as the use of shared IP addresses and mass registration addresses in Kyiv and Lviv. In particular, seven individuals were identified, each of whom simultaneously serves as the director or founder of over 500 companies.
Based on data from the National Bank of Ukraine, tax authorities have already conducted audits and assessed over UAH 70 billion in penalties for violations of foreign exchange legislation in the field of foreign economic activity. The State Tax Service has forwarded all collected materials to the Office of the Prosecutor General for a legal assessment. Regarding 557 business entities, the agency has already prepared analytical conclusions indicating violations of the law and signs of money laundering.
Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv), part of the Ukroboronprom State Concern, and division of U.S. Boeing – Aviall Services, Inc., which reached an agreement on partnership under the program to manufacture modernized Ukrainian next generation regional jets An-148/158/178 at Farnborough 2018 in London in July, plan to complete the designing of a cooperation scheme step by step during the implementation of the general agreement on cooperation.
Commenting at the request of Interfax-Ukraine on the plans Antonov State Enterprise announced in Western media to resume mass production of the planes with the assistance of Boeing already by the end of 2019, the company’s press service said: “The general agreement signed at Farnborough 2018 with Aviall does not have the terms of the start of the mass production of the aircraft with participation of the U.S. company, since the U.S. company is not involved directly in the production process.”
“The signed agreement is the basic one, and fixes agreements on the organization of work with Aviall Services, Inc., which will ensure the procurement and supply of the Antonov state enterprise with a wide range of components for the mass production of new aircraft,” the press service said.
“The document also includes the plans of the parties for the creation of a licensed warehouse by the Antonov state enterprise in its territory, where Aviall will supply the components. The products supplied by the U.S. company will be paid by Antonov State Enterprise as far as the chain of purchases for filling the warehouse is secured. As the media mistakenly interpreted, there is also no provision in the signed general agreement that Boeing participates in the creation of the warehouse,” the press service said.
The press service of Antonov State Enterprise reported that the creation of a scheme for prospective cooperation with Aviall Services Inc. was not completed at this stage: “Details of this process will be specified at each stage of cooperation,” the official representative of the enterprise said.
“Details of the prospective partnership between Antonov State Enterprise and the Boeing division under the program, which has the conventional name An-1X8 NEXT in the signed general agreement, can be announced after the signing of the contracts for the supply of components and the transition to the practical phase of cooperation under the project,” the press service said.
