You're reading: Taxmen charge Phoenix Capital with tax evasion topping Hr 4 million

Investigators of Kyiv's tax police have searched the office of Kyiv-based Phoenix Capital investment company as part of an investigation into the evasion of taxes of over UAH 4 million.

The searches were authorized by Kyiv’s prosecutor office, the State Tax Service’s press service reported on Tuesday.

“The State Tax Service in Kyiv reports that the office of Phoenix Capital LLC has been searched on the basis of an investigator’s warrant, which was authorized by Kyiv’s prosecutor office. The tax service notes that none of the officers of the tax police’s physical guard team was involved in the search. Statements by some politicians on the use by tax officers of masks during the investigation do not correspond to reality,” says the report.

According to the report, the investigators of Kyiv’s tax police are now probing into a criminal case opened on charges of the counterfeit of Phoenix Capital LLC’s foundation documents under Article 358 of Part 1 and Part 4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and against officials of Phoenix Capital LLC on accusations of a crime under Article 212 of Part 3 of the Criminal Code.

“The basis for bringing up the action were the results of a visiting inspection at the said company which checked the observance of tax legislation and revealed securities purchase and sales operations with a non-resident, a Cyprus-based company, which was registered to bogus names and has the features of a shell company, as well as financial fraud with securities and the evasion of over UAH 4 million in taxes,” reads the statement.

The tax office stressed that all the investigation activities vis-à-vis Phoenix Capital LLC are connected with its administrative and economic activity, and have nothing to do with politics.

On her Facebook page, Lesia Orobets, an opposition MP and wife of the founder and chairman of Phoenix Capital LLC’s board, Oleksandr Omelchuk, wrote: “According to [MP] Andriy Parubiy, an investigation is currently under way on the instructions of Kyiv’s deputy prosecutor. Only at the request of a member of parliament were the employees, who were effectively taken hostage during the four hours of the ‘investigation,’ shown a document that authorizes their detention. The major task now is to counteract the use of force against the employees and bring the activity of the ‘law-enforcers’ onto a legal course.”