Roman Podgorinsky
The Mykolaiv region has always been renowned for its good grain harvests. The volumes are sufficient to supply the domestic market, and any surplus is traditionally exported by sea. Unfortunately, the unbearable tax burden, primarily, as well as the organizational and bureaucratic difficulties associated with both business registration and land use rights, have traditionally pushed rural farmers to seek optimal solutions for grain marketing.
Unfortunately, the time of an anarchic economy in the grain industry, in which there were many unconnected and unruly buyers for cash, has passed, giving way to a strictly regulated, monopolized criminal-capitalist system.
A simplified diagram of how this simple and clear system works is as follows: Controlled by a certain unifying force, buyers, armed with information about unregistered lands, the farmers who cultivate them, and the crops growing on these unregistered lands, buy the entire harvest for next to nothing in cash under conditions comparable to racketeering.
Next, the assembled shipments, using false documents from legal entities registered to front men, are shipped by dry cargo ships to companies in offshore jurisdictions. The foreign currency proceeds from these export operations are not returned to Ukraine, lost among the islands. Corporate income tax, which under this type of arrangement should be the base rate of 18 percent of revenue, is not paid, as the company simply abandons the operation after a few dry cargo ships. The same applies to the personal income tax for those who sold the harvested crops, which, as a tax agent, such a company is required to transfer to local budgets.
Needless to say, the VAT exemption for agricultural producers that existed until the beginning of 2016 was actively used by enterprising "businessmen" in the Mykolaiv region.
However, legislative changes have had little impact on the desire of swindlers to make money out of thin air. While before 2016, special-regime agricultural producers generated tax credits with agricultural produce, which at the next stage of supply was converted into any other goods, services, or labor, now importers of consumer goods and retailers are used to legalize grain purchased for cash. Selling consumer goods for uncontrolled cash frees up enormous potential for selling tax credits, which are then converted into grain and other agricultural crops.
The idea is simple and clear; all that remains is to connect the disparate chains of grain suppliers, importers, and retailers.
So, we've come to the central figure who, with the power and resources, should have prevented the aforementioned arbitrary actions. That's right, the head of the Mykolaiv Oblast Tax Police. His responsibilities primarily include identifying unaccounted for, unregistered, but cultivated land, uncovering instances of entrepreneurial activity without proper state registration, combating illegal trade in goods, including in foreign trade, and tax evasion.
However, in the case of the Nikolaev region, the tax police is headed by an anti-policeman, aka a wolf in... wolf's clothing, Roman PODGORODINSKY.
Why anti-? Because instead of fighting illegal activities, he, as the saying goes, led them, acting as an organizing and guiding force. One of the key factors is access to materials on tax violations and the ability to influence the processes to stop them.
Roman PODGORODINSKY, acting with accomplices who are current and former tax police officers, created a criminal group that ensured the operation of an illegal vertically integrated grain trading scheme.
In particular, the group includes Dmitry SOSINOVICH, head of the operational department, Denis LEVCHENKO, Vladimir ROZKIDNOY, and others. In turn, using criminal connections through Alexander NIKITIN, the latter organized the registration of a number of legal entities in the names of fictitious citizens, on whose behalf grain is exported through the Oktyabrsky, Nikolaev-Morskoy and other customs points, namely: PROMETEY-GRAIN LLC, code 38694075, Nikolaev, PROMETEY-GOLD LLC, code 39139456, Nikolaev, PROMETEY GRAIN TRADING COMPANY LLC, code 39749858, Nikolaev, PROMETEY-TRADE LLC, code 39981544, Nikolaev, INDUSTRIC TRADE LLC, code 39747431, Kiev, BALTIKUS TRADE LLC, code 39534874, Kiev, ILTA ORIGINATION LLC, code 39407655, Kiev, TOTLEND LLC, code 38743855, Cherkasy region, BESSARABIA-AGRO LLC, code 39076260, Odessa region.
The companies-intermediaries, providing the so-called twists or substitution of goods, for example, buying building materials and selling grain, also fall within the sphere of influence of Roman PODGORODYNSKY - Dmitry SOSINOVICH: LLC "LODIKS", code 39883534, Nikolaev, LLC "UKREKSPOSERVIS", code 34437879, Nikolaev, LLC "ZERNOTRADE COMPANY", code 40387276, Nikolaev, LLC "GAVRAN", code 37518494, Odessa.
The activities of KORN NIKOLAEV, a private enterprise (ID 34993272) in Mykolaiv, are indicative. They involve a separate business model: selling fictitious tax credits through fraudulent transfers from MIRONOVSKY KHLEBOPRODUKT PJSC and other poultry suppliers. In exchange, KORN NIKOLAEV provides dismantling services, spare parts, construction materials, and other goods unrelated to poultry products. This list of enterprises requires comment.
Of course, it is far from complete and final. In late 2015 and early 2016, a near-revolutionary situation developed at the Main Directorate of the Fiscal Service of Mykolaiv Oblast, leading rank-and-file employees to grumble and even file collective complaints with the Main Directorate of the Tax Police and the local prosecutor's office. Seeking to preserve the established system, Roman PODGORODYNSKYI decided to act in the best guerrilla traditions – dispersing enterprises across Ukraine, thereby giving his colleagues a "gift."
A blacklist of untouchable enterprises has been issued to the heads of all relevant departments of the State Fiscal Service Main Directorate in Mykolaiv Oblast, including those responsible for tax oversight, audit, and operational management. Dmitry Prokofiev, Head of the State Tax Inspectorate in Mykolaiv's Central District, is responsible for directly covering these enterprises at their tax registration locations.
Notably, the exports are made to offshore companies whose names, we hope, merely resemble those of both Ukrainian and global agricultural holdings. And in the domestic market, domestic grain traders are also supported, at a minimum, by a tax credit from a pool of fictitious companies controlled by Roman PODGORODINSKY, ostensibly purchasing grain from them.
For those reading this, I would like to point out that the economic impact of the described scheme exceeds, even by conservative estimates, UAH 1,5-2 billion, while the tariffs, while seemingly more than modest, amount to 0,3-2,5 percent of the volume supplied, depending on the transaction.
For those reading this, it will be easy for regulatory authorities to calculate the budget losses – it amounts to at least UAH 500 million.
And this is just one component of the business.
Roman PODGORODINSKY's sphere of influence extends to the Mykolaiv customs office, as the tax police still has some functions related to monitoring foreign economic activity. Taxes are also levied on "white" "importers," and protection fees for smugglers remain the same: 0,3 percent of the imported volume.
Overall, the Mykolaiv tax police's toolbox for pressuring businesses and extracting various bribes is unlikely to differ from that of other law enforcement agencies. This includes the illegal registration of criminal cases in the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations, followed by their termination for a fee of $30 to $50; the protection of various small-scale converters, followed by their transfer to centralized services upon payment of a sort of entry-exit fee of $5 to $10; and the protection of activities related to the illegal production, smuggling, and sale of excisable goods, including alcoholic beverages by Vasily Burmus and tobacco products by Sergey Chepizhko. The trusted intermediary, the victim of potential criminal prosecution, is none other than Dmitry Sosinovich.
The cynicism of the situation is compounded by the fact that the largest taxpayers, using various sources to accumulate their scam tax credits, are being forcibly transferred to the "centralized" services of a conversion and transit group controlled, among others, by Roman Podgorodinsky. We all remember how the Zakharchenko-Klimenko laundry recently achieved industrial-scale turnover, with guarantees that violations would be forgotten forever after a certain percentage was paid. Similar guarantees, supposedly with full coordination with the Main Directorate of the State Fiscal Service, are offered to their clients by the Mykolaiv tax police, for a mere 2,5 percent of the total volume.
The team, or rather, Podgorodinsky's pack of wolves, continues to be formed. All forms of disciplinary action are being used to oust principled and honest operatives, including reprimands, deprivation of bonuses, and allowances.
All attempts at an objective and comprehensive pre-trial investigation of criminal proceedings based on established facts regarding the operation of conversion centers are being blocked personally by Roman PODGORODINSKY, as the curator of the Financial Investigations Department.
The vacant positions in the operational and investigative departments are being filled by former employees of the internal affairs agencies who were left behind after re-certification in the national police, primarily due to discrediting themselves in their previous positions.
Unfortunately, the criminal case against Roman PODGORODINSKY and Dmitry SOSINOVICH for abuse of office, which has been languishing since March 2016 in the same Nikolaev prosecutor's office, will suffer the fate of a host of other anti-corruption cases that have been dragged out and died over the past two years – the years since the Revolution of Dignity.
However, the Nikolaev region will soon breathe a sigh of relief – the question of Roman PODGORODINSKY’S appointment to the Sumy region has already been decided.
Alexander Nikolaev
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