The Security Service of Ukraine or SBU claims to have raided the supermarket chain Brusnychka, owned by Ukraine's richest billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, suspected of multimillion-dollar money laundering and tax evasion. Vasyl Hrytsak, the SBU head, says the company stole $1.2 million from the state budget, and owes $21.7 million in taxes.
The problem is, the
raid never happened, acording to the perss service of Ukrainskiy Retail, the
company that develops the Brusnychka brand.
The company also
denied all of Hrytsak’s accusations.
“Ukrainskiy Retail
operates in accordance with the Ukrainian legislation,” the company told the
Kyiv Post in an email on Nov. 2. “As for today, there hasn’t been any
investigative or operational activities in the company’s office in Dnipropetrovsk
and the Brusnychka chain stores. We didn’t receive any inquiries for the
financial or any other information.”
The chain keeps
running its businesses as usual, the company said.
Hrytsak made the
announcement of the raid at Akhmetov’s business on Nov. 2 during a joint press
briefing with Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, at the same time he talked
about the arrest of Hennady Korban, an ally of billionaire oligarch Ihor
Kolomoisky. Korban was arrested Oct. 31 on suspicion of organized crime, embezzlement,
kidnapping and hijacking charges.
Korban’s arrested
is seen as politically motivated selective justice, especially since no
high-ranking former aides of ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych or
allies of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko or Prime Minister Arseniy
Yatsenyuk have been arrested or prosecuted.
According to Karl
Volokh, an activist of the Civic Lustration Committee, the SBU’s claims
involving Akhmetov’s chain appear to be an attempt to improve its
crime-fighting reputation. But it backfired or, at the very least, “it
looked weird.”
Hrytsak’s aim was
to show that law enforcement is not only focused on Korban, Volokh said,
although society thinks Shokin’s actions are “all about the persecution of
the political opponent.”
Vitaly Shabunin of
the Anti-Corruption Action Center, a watchdog organization, also
raised eyebrows over Hrytsak’s
announcement and recommended that the SBU and prosecutors hire a PR firm to
help them improve their credibility.
“They are
criticized for the selective justice. In what way does the Brusnychka case save
them?” Shabunin told the Kyiv Post. “If Akhmetov was sitting next to Korban in
pretrial detention, that would be a valid argument. But what, look, we are
shaking Brusnychka, (which is worth) some kopecks in the Akhmetov’s empire? So
what? It’s ridiculous!”
The SBU on Nov. 3
released an official report on the case. It doesn’t contain the name of the
company. However, the figures and accusations are the same.
The report stated
that “the management of the structure has systematically conducted the
financial transactions with the commercial structures that legally and actually
are located in the temporarily (Russian-) occupied territories of Donetsk and
Luhansk Oblasts.”
The chain,
according to the SBU, has transferred more than $21.7 million to the accounts
of the companies’ from separatist areas this year. To minimize the taxes, the
company “carried out the operations with unaccounted cash and sold the products
of dubious origin.” The SBU has launched criminal proceedings against the
company.
Ukrainskiy Retail
is owned by Akhmetov’s SCM Group. The company opened the first Brusnychka store
in 2007. As of Aug. 31, the chain was represented with 101 stores in the
eastern oblasts of Ukraine, including 27 stores in the government controlled
parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
Kyiv Post staff writer
Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]
