In Poltava, the SBU blocked the activity of an interregional conversion center, which “provided services" for a number of real economy enterprises from Kyiv city, Kyiv, Poltava and Khmelnytskyi regions.

During the pre-trial investigation, SBU officers established that the organizers of the conversion center had registered more than 100 bogus firms. They provided customers with “services” of tax minimization, helped to create illegal VAT tax credits, and to launder money and convert it into cash.

According to the experts, the organizers of illegal business annually converted more than UAH 150 million (USD 5,4 million) . The conversion center existed for almost 2 years. The suspects received 10-10.5% of the total amount of money for their "services".

During 24 simultaneous searches, the law enforcement officers seized more than 60 seals of bogus firms, mobile phones, flash drives, hard drives, draft records and primary financial and economic documentation proving the fraud. About UAH 500,000 (USD 18,100) were seized from one of the couriers of the convert center.

The investigation is ongoing upon the fact of intentional evasion of taxes and fees, that led to the actual non-receipt of budgets or state trust funds in respect of especially gross amounts (Part 5 of Art. 27, part 3 of Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The operation was conducted by the SBU Office in Poltava region under the supervision of the Prosecutor's Office of Poltava region jointly with the State Tax Service in Poltava region.