Editor's Note: This investigation was conducted by the Washington-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a Kyiv Post partner.
The entire “Veggie Scams” serries can be read at the OCCRP website here.
Svitlana Ogulenko says she is scared to death.
“My God, I work as a yard
keeper. I have an adopted child, I pay my bills on time and I never did
anything illegal. Could you explain how this will end for me? I have a feeling
that the police will come and take me soon.”
Although the 47-year-old lives
in Ukraine’s Odessa Oblast, she is, according to company records, the
administrator and shareholder of a Romanian vegetable trading company called Albutz Com Ltd. The company owes almost €1 million (US$
1.29 million) to the Romanian state in unpaid taxes.
Like others involved in this “vegetable” scheme, Ogulenko says she knows
nothing about the company and has never been involved in any of its business.
Her identity was used without her knowledge, and she is not alone.
Recruiting workers in Odesa
Six other women from the same Ukrainian region also “owned” companies and
some of them owed huge amounts of taxes – something they say they learned only
when they were summoned to appear before Romanian courts.
Reporters for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project followed
the documents in Ogulenko’s case to the family home in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi –
an ancient port on the Black Sea.
Her husband, Viacheslav Ogulenko, was clearly irritated when he answered
the door. “We do not have any business in Romania,” he said.
“Svitlana never sold vegetables. We don’t have any vegetable business. It
is not the first time we were asked about this. I think in the spring of 2012
we got a letter from Romania, but we threw it away.”
That letter was a notification from Romanian authorities trying to recover
the debt incurred by Albutz Com Ltd, a vegetable trading company.
“Damn, is that our company or what?” Viacheslav Ogulenko asked
rhetorically. Since they had nothing to do with the case, he said, “why should
we spend money to go to some court in Romania?”
His wife was not at home, but spoke with OCCRP via phone a few weeks later.
“Back in 2008, I saw an ad in a newspaper which said they needed cleaning
workers in Romania,” she recalled. The pay was excellent—about $2,000 for a
month’s work. “I desperately needed money to renovate my house. So I decided to
apply. I was contacted very quickly and then (was) helped to get a visa in just
a few hours,” she recalled.
Ogulenko said she travelled by train to Bucharest. At the train station, “a
person who introduced himself as a lawyer welcomed me and told me I would go
into a six-month work program in Romania, and then another six months back at
home, and so on. In order to get into the program, he asked me to sign some
documents and I gave him my real address and real data. The papers were in
Romanian, so I didn’t understand what was written there. I think that, instead
of signing a labour contract, I signed something else, without even realizing
it.”
Reporters for OCCRP found a copy of Ogulenko’s passport attached to the
file of Albutz Com Ltd at the Romanian registry of companies. The copy shows
that she entered Romania by train on 20 August 2008. Ogulenko remained in
Romania for 40 days and was paid US$ 2,000, as she had said. On September 30,
2008, the company started its vegetable-trading activities.
The notary
The reporters tracked down the paperwork showing how the people behind
Albutz Com Ltd used Ogulenko’s identity.
According to documents seen by
OCCRP, in September 2008 the Ukrainian woman was brought to the Chiras &
Constantinescu public notary office in Bucharest where she signed a stack of papers that were used to
establish the new Romanian commercial enterprise
Ogulenko said she and several other women had been to the notary office,
but repeated she had no idea what she was signing. The paperwork appears to be
certified by Bianca Octavia Chiraş, one of the partners in the notary firm.
Chiraş declined several requests to talk to OCCRP.
Several other women from near Odessa visited the same office, for the same
reason: to establish fruit and vegetable trading businesses headquartered in
Voluntari, a small town near the Romanian capital.
Two of them, Olena Korpusova and Svitlana Kaimakova, were there on the same day
as Ogulenko, in order to give statements for two other companies in Voluntari.
Reporters visited the addresses listed for the women but found no one who knew
them.
The courier
Here’s how the tax evasion scheme worked, according to OCCRP’s
investigation: companies were established in the names of the Ukrainian women
but the power of attorney remained with a group of Turkish citizens who ran the
companies. Some of the companies ran up huge tax debts, and when tax officials
came calling, all they found were the Ukrainian women.
All necessary documents were signed and notarized at the Chiras &
Constantinescu notary office.
A Romanian citizen was the link between the notary’s office, the Ukrainian
women and the Turkish group behind the enterprise.
Viorel Tilincă, 52, said in a phone conversation with an OCCRP reporter
that he was an employee of the notary office and ran errands for many years
between the Turks and the office. One of the people involved was Sahin Yuksek,
a Turkish citizen investigated for tax evasion together with other members of
his family.
“I’ve known Sahin Yuksek since 1993,” Tilincă said. “I have also
worked with other Turkish men, but I don’t know how many in total. I don’t keep
track of them. I was only empowered to submit some documents or go to deposit
money for the registered capital, when new firms were created. Do you think
they were telling me what they did with these companies?
“I have been also
interrogated by prosecutors about these companies. They asked how did I get to
know the Turks. But there was nothing else I could tell them, because I was
just a courier. It’s not my business what they did with these companies.”
It was Tilincă who handled the company belonging to Olena Korpusova, the
woman who had been at the notary office on the same day as Ogulenko.
Neighbors in Voluntari
Ogulenko’s company, Albutz Com
Ltd, was physically located in a rented 14-square-meter garage in Voluntari,
just outside Bucharest. The garage was rented from a Romanian citizen, Marin
Răducanu, who signed a contract with Ogulenko.
Răducanu says he is not happy about any of this. “I have never seen
this woman from Ukraine. A Romanian I met in the green market said he wanted me
to rent this garage to him to make an office there. I don’t remember his name.
But after that I’ve had all sorts of trouble with the authorities. I saw that
the documents of my house appeared in the file of this company, documents I
have never given to him. This really (annoys me).
Răducanu’s garage is located
just next to the property of Yuksel Rencuzogullari, a 43-year-old Turkish
citizen, who is from Samandag, Turkey, the same town where Sahin Yuksek is
from.
Recuzogullari was also a client of the same notary office and Tilincă also
submitted paperwork on his behalf. Said Tilincă, “I do not keep track of these
companies. Ask Yuksel. My job was to fulfil my mandate and that was it. Look
for the link between Yuksel and Abbas Yuksek.” Abbas Yuksek is Sahin Yuksek’s
brother and was also charged with tax evasion in October 2012.
At Yuksel Rencuzogullari’s home, his wife, Georgiana Rencuzogullari, denied
any involvement in the fraud. “We don’t want to be involved in this
affair. We were also called by DNA prosecutors” (DNA is the National
Anticorruption Directorate) “and we told them everything we knew. My husband is
away in Turkey, where he has his business. Occasionally he comes to Romania.
But I cannot give you his contact data, because we have nothing to do with this
story.”
And yet another property in Voluntari that belongs to Georgiana
Rencuzogullari is listed as their home address by at least three of the Turkish
citizens investigated for tax evasion.
