Former leadership of Dnipropetrovsk State Tax Service exposed by the SBI will be judged for multimillion-dollar VAT fraud

The employees of the State Bureau of Investigation have completed a pre-trial investigation into former officials of the Main Directorate of the State Tax Service in Dnipropetrovsk region. They are accused of causing losses to the state in excess of 56 million hryvnias through value added tax (VAT) fraud.

The indictment has been sent to the court.

According to the investigation, the former head of the regional Tax Service involved subordinates at various levels in the illegal enrichment scheme. In 2020–2023, they provided risky companies with the opportunity to supply goods without paying VAT.

To give the scheme an «official» appearance, the head of the regional Tax Service issued an order to create a so-called analytical group, which included trusted executors. This made it possible to take control of the monitoring of tax invoice registration and to select potential «clients» for illegal transactions.

Just for “helping” one of these companies cost the state over 56 million hryvnias.

The four defendants are accused of creating and leading a criminal organization, as well as abuse of power or official position (Part 3 of Article 255, Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

In order to compensate for the damage caused, the apartments, private houses, and parking spaces of the accused have been seized.

The sanctions of the articles provide for a sentence of up to 13 years in prison with confiscation of property.

The procedural guidance is provided by the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor's Office.