The SSU and the SBI have exposed a large-scale criminal scheme in customs clearance of foreign trucks at Zhytomyr Customs.

Over 10 people are involved in the unlawful activity, including six officials of Zhytomyr-Central customs post and several businessmen from Zhytomyr and Rivne.

The offenders artificially ‘reduced’ the age of the vehicle by changing the year of manufacture of the imported trucks and thus evaded payment of customs duties.

The fraud caused losses to the budget in the amount of almost UAH 40 mln (USD 952,000) due to the underpayment of excise duty and VAT.

The participants of the scheme submitted to the customs authority forged foreign technical passports with ‘corrected’ dates of manufacturing.

The chief state customs inspectors ‘failed’ to carry out proper verification of these documents and ‘guaranteed’ unimpeded customs clearance of the trucks.

The investigation established that the offenders ‘saved’ from UAH 90 to UAH 750 thousand (USD 2,400 to USD 20,300) on each truck, depending on the engine size.

During the searches of the suspect’s homes, the law enforcement found documents with evidence of the offence.

Based on the SSU’s investigation, eleven members of the criminal group were notified of suspicion under 4 Articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• 28.3 (committing a criminal offence by an organized group);
• 364.2 (abuse of power or official position, which caused grave consequences);
• 212.3 (evasion of taxes, duties (mandatory payments);
• 358.4 (forgery of documents, seals, stamps and forms, sale or use of forged documents, seals, stamps).

The court is to decide on the measure of restraint.

The pre-trial investigation is underway.

The operation was conducted under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor General’s Office.