A journalistic investigation into a corruption scheme involving the export of Ukrainian grain to Russia by a Russian businessman with a Ukrainian passport.
Despite all the efforts of Ukraine to continue exporting grain from its ports, in Ukraine itself there are people, former Russians, who still manage to sell stolen grain in Ukraine, and according to the documents, having re-registered it as “Kuban”, Russian grain carriers export the stolen grain to Syria, and the money sales are “laundered” through their accomplices in Cyprus and the Czech Republic, which we will talk about separately.
Our “hero” has already managed to show up in the gray supply of military electronics and components for the Russian army, bypassing sanctions. Deciding that finishing off Ukrainians on the battlefield was not enough, Alexander Galkin decided to also empty the bins of his new homeland, which had given him and his brother Nikolai Ukrainian citizenship.
Having opened a structure for the wholesale trade of grain products in the Russian Federation and Ukraine in the name of his brother, Nikolai, Alexander simply squeezes out the wheat harvest in the newly-minted territories of Donbass, where complete chaos reigns due to military operations, and exports railway trains to the Russian Federation through his “boss” in Cyprus, Usherovich Boris Efimovich, or by sea with grain trucks to Syria and further to local dictators to support regimes loyal to the Kremlin.
Bloomberg estimates that 4.04 million tons of grain and sunflower seeds worth $1.9 billion were stolen or destroyed from the 2021 harvest alone.
Ukrainian grain is smuggled through Crimea to Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, etc. To hide the source of the cargo, Galkin resorts to “laundering” the grain: loading is carried out at sea without entering the port, Ukrainian grain is mixed with cargo from other sources, bulk carriers turn off transponders to hide their movements.
“About 1.3 million tons of grain were left in the temporarily occupied territories. Which, first of all, are needed to ensure daily food security, that is, feeding the Ukrainians who live there, and performing the necessary spring field work in terms of sowing spring crops; there were no strategic reserves there. We already have confirmation from each region - Zaporozhye region, Kherson region, Donetsk, Lugansk - about 100 thousand were taken from each region,” Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Taras Vysotsky explained the situation. And this is data only for 2022.
For Alexander Galkin, Crimea acts as a transshipment point for the majority of cargo stolen in Ukraine, and the main route for the export of stolen grain passes through Sevastopol, to elevators in Dzhankoy and Oktyabrsky, or directly to the port of Sevastopol. Some of the grain ends up in the markets of Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory, but the bulk of it was exported.
Galkin’s senior partner in this part of the scheme is the famous formerly largest Russian Railways contractor, “GK 1520” represented by the “king of government orders” Usherovich Boris Efimovich.
This is the same Boris Usherovich who paid for the “roof” of Colonel Zakharchenko, during a search of whom they found pallets of money, bribes for failure to initiate and the release of already opened cases in connection with the theft of huge budget funds for maintaining the railway infrastructure of the Russian Federation.
Large-scale schemes of theft and laundering of budget funds, which went further to the West - until recently, Boris Usherovich coped with all this very well, but was forced to flee from Russia to Cyprus, due to the threat of arrest after Zakharchenko “spoke” at the trial.
For almost 3 years, Usherovich lived on his yacht in international waters, constantly cruising in the Mediterranean Sea, trying to either ask for political asylum in the UK (successfully, by the way), or obtain (unsuccessfully so far) Israeli citizenship, or settle in Cyprus. It is also worth noting that Boris Usherovich has long been under the control of the British intelligence services.
With the help of the above B.E. Usherovich and his connections in Russian Railways, Alexander Galkin easily organizes the transfer of Ukrainian stolen grain to the bins of the Russian Federation or for export. And the money received is laundered in Cyprus and transferred to the UK and the EU, through multiple “laundries”, the largest in the past known as the “Moldavian Laundromat”
List of companies controlled by A.A. Galkin and used to pay for stolen grain and subsequent laundering in the EU:
- Jaydacen Consulting Ltd
- Panagudo Trading Ltd
- Pentikar Trading Ltd
- Sadoriono Holdings Ltd
- Shayhonton Consulting Ltd
- Sygeron Trading Ltd
- Value Financial Services Corp
Only the authorized capital of these gasket firms amounts to more than 45 million US dollars and half a billion rubles, which is highly unusual for standard practices in Cyprus, where a nominal minimum amount is usually specified for subsequent bankruptcy in court.
Through numerous gasket companies in Cyprus registered by B.E. Usherovich, A.A. Galkin controls the multimillion-dollar turnover of stolen grain and subsequently cashes out the income obtained by criminal means in the EU countries as net income from his investment activities, only a few of these companies are listed below, the beneficiary of which is through B.E. Usherovich becomes A.A. Galkin.
In May-June 2022 alone, the Windward platform recorded 170 cases in which ships (mainly under Syrian or Russian flags) turned off their transponders in the Sea of Azov and turned them on at the entrance to the Bosphorus Strait with questionable cargo on board. Investigators from the Associated Press by October 2022 tracked more than 50 flights with stolen Ukrainian grain to Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia and several other countries. The Kiev School of Economics estimated the total losses in the agricultural sector, including lost equipment, unharvested crops and damaged land, at $4.3 billion by July 2022.
Below is the structure of companies of Galkin A.A. updated for 2023. through which he carries out his criminal activities.
Analysis of companies and funds for 2022: the structure has changed little, our “hero” simply closed down the “overexposed” companies and opened new ones - but the essence remains.
Feeling that he would be tried both in the Russian Federation for transfers from beneficiaries, or rather theft of assets worth $3.5 billion, and in Ukraine for theft of grain on an industrial scale, Alexander Galkin decided to prepare himself a cozy nest in Latvia, where received a residence permit from an EU member state in bribes, and now lives in Jurmala.
Below is a list of the main companies controlled by Alexander Galkin and his brother Nikolai Galkin:
- Tiajin Diaotong Trade Co Ltd
- ZHentai International Trade Co Ltd
- Beijing Bright Road Trade Co Ltd
- Crown Wisdom Trade Co Ltd
- Tech Freete
- Tech Tree
- Ibu Trade Kft
- GTC Global Ltd
- Aposteriori Kft
- Transcheetah SRO
- PSI Solutions SRO
- CME Digital Development Kft
- RC Industrial Group Ltd
- Salo Solutions Kft
- Fort TC International EOOD
- Extrandex SRO
- Byquant Ker.Es Szolg Kft
- Planet 9 LLC
All of them merge into a single empire of A.A. Galkin. stretching from China to Cyprus and Latvia, with a multi-billion dollar turnover in foreign currency.
But the most interesting thing is that in the current conditions of a complete ban on the import of military and dual-use electronics into the Russian Federation, Alexander Galkin decided to supply dual-use products bypassing sanctions.
The route diagram for the supply of prohibited products to the Russian Federation through Kazakhstan, similar to the one used by A.A. Galkin together with accomplices from Cyprus. Testkomplekt LLC was noticed in the SNILS database of the Russian Federation during our research as an importer for a contract dated May 14, 2023 together with Pentikar Trading Ltd, which is controlled by funds in Panama and BVI.
Alexander Galkin has already been seen in the supply of military components for the needs of the Russian army, but this year he took aim at the holy of holies: the General Staff of the Russian Federation, supplying components for communications between units and battle control systems. The appetites of the “new Ukrainian” have increased so much that in the supply contract for the Russian Ministry of Defense, he did not even bother to explain the reasons for the increased prices for the supply of equipment. In private correspondence with his friends, one of whom leaked their correspondence, the “new-Ukrainian” businessman boasted that he didn’t even “bother” to make excuses for increasing the price by 300% from the previous approved estimate and contract amount, knowing full well that other suppliers had There is no General Staff of the Russian Federation and it is not expected in the near future.
Our editors have at their disposal a photo of the contract for the supply of components for the data center of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Data Processing Center of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation - a fundamental component in the modern war with Ukraine. Due to the ban on the direct import of special server equipment to Russia, Alexander Galkin founded a “gray import” scheme through Kazakhstan for electronics and communications, without which fighter planes, tanks and cruisers cannot function.
The editors of our publication ask that this journalistic investigation be considered an official request to the SBU in order to verify the facts stated in this investigation.
Passport of brother A.A. Galkina, who also received Ukrainian citizenship later
