Corruption scandals surrounding local customs have been raging in Zaporizhzhia for several months now: a series of arrests of high-ranking officials have exposed criminal schemes that had been in operation for years. The lack of fair criminal convictions, despite the open complicity of the prosecutor's office, has generated particular public outcry.
After the Maidan, hope arose for an uncompromising fight against corruption and public trials of criminals leading to fair sentences. At the time, it seemed that the city of Zaporizhzhia, ravaged by bribery and lawlessness, would be hard to surprise with the scale of the embezzlement. It turned out that it was possible to surprise after all.
Has something or someone changed? The people and the flow of traffic have changed, but the old, new schemes have not. These schemes were developed by the former head of the Zaporizhzhia customs office, Dmitry Nikolaevich Afanasiadi, and are now "successfully" used by his students.
Instead of fighting corruption, new extortion schemes have begun to emerge in Zaporizhzhia. Only now, the system of extracting money from the city is built not only on racketeering and corporate raiding, as was common during Anisim's time, but also on customs operations.
Customs, which should be one of the main contributors to the state treasury, has become a cash cow for criminals and a money laundering pit in Zaporizhzhia. Money is being made from literally everything, from large-scale smuggling to fleecing private companies.
The system had been operating quietly for a long time and only came to the media thanks to the latest revealing episode.
At the end of January of this year, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested Vitaliy Perviy, deputy head of the Zaporizhzhia-Airport customs post, for accepting a $1700 bribe. He had extorted $100 from Atlasjet Ukraine for each flight departing from the Zaporizhzhia airport. The scheme is foolproof. Even considering the Zaporizhzhia airport's modest traffic volume, we're dealing with a stable, operating scheme accumulating so-called "black cash." Imagine you want to fly from Zaporizhzhia to Antalya, but the ticket price, due to the customs officers' fault, already contains an unofficial corruption tax. How about that? Moreover, the victim of the extortion was Atlasjet Ukraine, a company with foreign capital. Perhaps this is the only reason the customs scam was uncovered.
But Vitaliy Perviy's excess didn't end with a prison sentence. His "inner circle" stepped in, revealing whose interests the customs mafia was serving in Zaporizhzhia. Instead of receiving a prison sentence, Perviy got off with a fine of 22,500 hryvnias, half the amount of the bribe! Such miracles of a criminal investigation were possible solely thanks to the efforts of the Zaporizhzhia prosecutor's office, which, mid-investigation, suddenly changed Perviy's charge to a more lenient one. Well, quite by accident. Then came the circus. Not only was the bribe-taker not jailed, but he was given back his 62,000 hryvnia bail, over $4000, his car was unsealed, and even his confiscated iPhone was returned. And you say there's no justice in the country? We have the most humane prosecutor's office. True, for accomplices, but that's another matter.
It would seem that the lesson, even given the lenient sentence, was not a bad one. But most likely, because of the lenient sentence, Zaporizhzhia Customs did not learn any lessons.
Two months after the incident with Vitaliy Perviy, two heads of the Zaporizhzhia customs office, Bohdan Shylo and Volodymyr Slabyshev, are facing bribery charges. They were caught red-handed, accepting 125 hryvnias from a businessman. In exchange, the officials guaranteed the businessman would not create obstacles to the export of goods.
Interestingly, Bohdan Shylo was appointed head of the Zaporizhzhia Customs Office under the protection of the Internal Security Directorate of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine. Perhaps that's why he openly demanded bribes from businessmen in his office. Was he hoping the World Bank would cover for him?
It later emerged that these guys had organized a veritable customs "laundromat," clearing contraband cargo that had been blocked by Odessa. This amounts to millions of dollars and enormous losses for the state budget. Why Odessa? It's simple – that's where the customs reform process and the fight against smuggling are currently underway. And clearing "Odesa" cargo is part of the price for being assigned to a lucrative location. Let's put aside the lyrical sentiments of Mikheil Saakashvili and look at the facts. What has the fight against corruption led to? The eradication of corruption? Keep your mouth shut. Smuggling flows have simply migrated to other regions. In other words, the cargo that was cleared yesterday at Odessa customs is now being cleared at Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol customs, where, by the way, Shilo's people work. This is precisely what Messrs. Shilo, Slabyshev, and Sergey Anatolyevich Nadein, deputy head of the Zaporizhzhia Central Post and also one of Shilo's "cashiers," were doing. Naturally, such schemes cannot work without sensitive guidance and protection from the Internal Security Directorate of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.
According to our sources, a fee of $500-$700 was charged for each container, the lion's share of which went to the right people at the Ukrainian State Fiscal Service, who Shylo personally delivered to Kyiv. At least 100 of these "Odessa" containers passed through Zaporizhzhia per month. So, just do the math – this part of the corrupt customs officers' criminal activity alone brought them at least $50,000-$70,000 a month out of thin air!
Naturally, in such a scenario, the guys from the Internal Security Directorate of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine will defend their own. After Shilo and Slabishchev were "accepted," arrangements were immediately made for their release on bail. And, who would have doubted it, literally overnight, 2 million hryvnias were found to secure their release.
2 million hryvnias for two employees whose official salaries do not exceed 4-5 hryvnias. There is even more telling evidence of the luxurious lifestyle of these guardians of the state's interests – luxurious villas and cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. As the saying goes, not a penny for themselves. Everything for the family, everything for the family.
An investigation is currently underway, but it's already clear that the course is once again set on "ditching" the investigation. Prosecutors need loyal cronies capable of maintaining effective schemes. Therefore, sabotage of criminal cases by the state prosecutor is guaranteed.
Anyone with knowledge of corruption at the Zaporizhzhia customs office can contact the editorial office anonymously. This will significantly simplify the process of subsequent journalistic investigations into each known fact.
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