Court Fines Businessman a Record 3.77 Billion Hryvnias for an Oil Export Scheme
The Central District Court of Mykolaiv heard a case involving a large-scale violation of customs regulations by the company “ERSA GROUP” during the export of agricultural products from Ukraine. As a result, the company’s former director, Mykhailo Melnyk, was found guilty of concealing from customs the export of vegetable oil with a declared value of over 1.258 billion hryvnias.
According to the investigation, between August and November 2021, the limited liability company “ERSA GROUP,” which was then headed by Mykhailo Melnyk, cleared more than 60.7 million kilograms of raw, unrefined sunflower oil and sunflower meal through customs. The total declared value of the products exported by sea was 1,258,956,186 UAH 38 kopecks. The declarants cited contracts with the Hungarian company “Borko Trade Hungary Kft.” as the basis for clearing the cargo.
While verifying the authenticity of the submitted documents, Ukrainian customs officials sought assistance from international law enforcement agencies in Hungary and the Czech Republic. The evidence gathered revealed that the transaction was entirely fictitious. In particular, it was discovered that the Hungarian company’s bank accounts listed in the contracts had been closed as early as April 2021—that is, several months before the contracts were signed. In addition, the Czech citizen listed as the director of the purchasing company had been removed from his position as early as October 2020. During questioning, he admitted that he had agreed to serve as a nominal director at the request of a Ukrainian he barely knew, signed documents in Hungarian—a language he did not understand—and had not entered into any contracts for the supply of oil. Thus, the actual recipients of the cargo and the contracting parties were entirely different individuals or entities, and the documents were forged to legalize the export of the products abroad.
In light of this, the court concluded that forged documents had been submitted to customs authorities. Since the company’s former director, Mykhailo Leonidovych Melnyk, had previously been held liable for a similar offense, his actions were classified under Part 2 of Article 483 of the Customs Code of Ukraine (the movement of goods or actions aimed at moving goods across the border while concealing them from customs control). The defendant himself did not appear at the hearing, so the case was heard in his absence.
Judge I.I. Dirko found the defendant guilty and imposed a fine equal to 200 percent of the value of the goods, amounting to 2,517,912,372 UAH 76 kopecks. In addition, since it was impossible to physically confiscate the goods that had already been exported abroad, the court ordered the offender to pay their full value, amounting to 1,258,956,186 UAH 38 kopecks. The total amount that the former official must pay to the state budget exceeds 3.77 billion hryvnias.
Source: Court on Schemes.
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