The Bureau of Economic Security referred to the court the case of tax evasion of 146 million hryvnias of Gulliver shopping center.
This was reported by the press service of the department. “Detectives of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine sent an indictment to the court against the managers of the company that owns the capital’s shopping center and two other subsidiary companies for tax evasion of almost UAH 146 million,” the report says.
It was established that during the years 2019-2021, the suspects concluded a number of contracts between the management company of the shopping center and controlled subcontracting companies, including those with signs of “fictitiousness” and “transit”, for the receipt of various services, the purchase of consumer goods, etc. In the future, information was added to the documents about works being carried out on the territory of the shopping mall, which were not actually carried out. Their absence is also confirmed by the employees of service providers’ contractors who were questioned during the investigation. In this way, the company unjustifiably overestimated the value-added tax credit. In addition, with the help of non-commodity operations and services, the company avoided paying taxes in particularly large amounts. The total amount of damages caused to the state is more than UAH 145.8 million, the BEB emphasized. Tax evasion is confirmed by an analytical study, a conclusion of the State Tax Service and a forensic economic examination.
In general, two examinations were conducted as part of the criminal proceedings. Detectives also examined about 2,500 sheets of financial and business documentation and information from state registers, interrogated more than 100 people.
On the basis of the received evidence, the detectives of the Bureau of Economic Security informed the head of the enterprise about the suspicion of particularly large tax evasion.
The pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings on the grounds of tax evasion is conducted by detectives of the Bureau under the operational support of the Department of Strategic Investigations and the procedural management of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The press service of BFK Gulliver made a statement regarding the transfer of the case to the BEB court.
“The accusation is far-fetched and unfounded, instead, the conclusions of court experts were attached to the materials of the criminal proceedings, which refute the conclusions of the analytical studies of the DPS and BEB, as well as the position of the BEB in this criminal proceeding as a whole. In the end, not a single expert opinion received by the BEB, as well as the analytical conclusions of the DPS and the BEB itself, do not confirm the fact of tax evasion by the management of TRY O LLC, which owns the Gulliver shopping center. All such conclusions contain the caveat “probably”, “provided”, etc. A construction and technical forensic examination, which could be a reason for doubting the performance of the works, was not conducted in this criminal proceeding — it was refused (in this context, the further use of the seizure of the Gulliver shopping center as physical evidence is also absurd). Instead, the defense provided the BEB and the prosecutor’s office with the conclusions of court experts and recently issued certificates by the DPS itself about the absence of tax arrears, which completely refute the accusation and the assumption of tax evasion,” said the press service of BFC Gulliver.
