More than 1,000 employees of the National Police and Prosecutor General’s Office on March 30 searched the offices of Tedis Ukraine, the largest tobacco products distributor in Ukraine. The company is suspected of tax evasion, monopolization of the tobacco distribution market in Ukraine, and the illegal transfer of more than Hr 2 billion to Russia, Ukrainian authorities say.
The authorities also searched the offices of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine early on March 31. Its officials are suspected of helping the company maintain its monopolist status.
Tedis Ukraine, previously known as Megapolis, is owned by six offshore Cyprus companies but is linked to a Russian oligarch Igor Kesaev, according to Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, who gave a press briefing on the matter on March 31.
The company denies all the accusations, calling them baseless. The Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine made no statement. Its top officials are on leave, Avakov said.
Russian link
The money transferred to Russia could be used for financing military aggression against Ukraine, namely weapon supplies to the Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas, Lutsenko said.
According to him, Kesaev is also linked to a Russian machine gun factory, the V.A. Degtyarev Plant, one of the main weapons suppliers for the separatists fighting against Ukrainian army in the eastern Ukraine.
“Kesaev influenced the appointment of Tedis Ukraine top management and made sure that they would coordinate all their moves with one of the V.A. Degtyarev Plant board members,” Lutsenko said, adding that revealing more details could harm the investigation.
The company denied having links to Russia.
“There are no Russian citizens among the owners or beneficiaries of the company. Tedis Ukraine is owned by Ukrainian, Irish and British citizens,” reads a statement released by Tedis on March 31.
In October, the National Security Council of Ukraine included Kesaev on the list of Russian citizens under individual sanctions, banning the oligarch from transferring money out of Ukraine.
Lutsenko said Ukrainian prosecutors were going to issue a note of suspicion to Kesaev in absentia, as the oligarch is currently in Russia and hadn’t entered the territory of Ukraine since the EuroMaidan Revolution.
Monopoly, tax evasion
The investigators don’t have enough evidence yet to send a note of suspicion to the officials of the Anti-Monopoly Commitee, according to Lutsenko. He added that this would be up to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, a recently-created agency that investigates graft in government bodies.
Back in December, the Antimonopoly Committee accused Tedis of monopolizing the market of tobacco product distribution. The company said it would appeal against the accusation in court.
Tedis Ukraine is also suspected of tax evasion worth several million hryvnia.
Ironically, in February Odessa Department of the Fiscal Service of Ukraine gave Tedis Ukraine an honorary award for its significant tax contribution to the state budget. According to the company’s website, it paid more than Hr 1.5 billion in taxes in 2016.
According to the Tedis website, the company and its affiliated firms have offices in every oblast of Ukraine.
