The vice-president of the Maritime Chamber of Ukraine (a public organization) and the ex-director of Cranship LLC, Ivan Niyaky, is suspected of tax evasion.
Case No. 72023000310000007 is being investigated by the BEB. The detectives are focusing on the beneficial owner Andrei Ivanov. The Transship Group was founded in 1998 by Andrey Ivanov and is engaged in towing of ships, offshore transshipment, fleet rental and other maritime operations. Its structure includes about a dozen companies registered in Ukraine, the annexed Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Russia and offshore companies in Belize and Panama. One of the companies in this group is Cranship LLC, headed by Ivan Niyakiy.
The case was first investigated by tax officials under No. 32021100110000026. They discovered that in the period from August 2020 to February 2021, officials of Cranship LLC imported bulk carriers Afina, Memele, Misa and a sea tug into the customs territory of Ukraine with conditional partial exemption from taxation. Further, the management illegally transferred the vessels for temporary paid use on a lease basis to other business entities that are not VAT payers. As a result, dry barges and sea tugs were not registered in the appropriate customs import regime, deliberately evading taxes by more than 30 million hryvnia.
After the change of jurisdiction by the Deputy Prosecutor General, by a resolution of the senior investigator of the Odessa region police dated December 29, 2022, the criminal proceedings were closed due to the absence of a criminal offense. But BEB opened a new case. According to his plot, Niyakiy has already received suspicion of tax evasion of 8.66 million hryvnia.
The Shevchenkovsky District Court of Kyiv set his bail at 1.61 million hryvnia. The manager is trying to close the case. In court, he says that he earns only 15 thousand hryvnia monthly (nonsense) and insists on his financial inability to pay the bail. The money for the suspect was contributed by the Cranship company. Niyakiy notes that he is studying in graduate school at the Odessa National Maritime University, takes care of his mother, who is a pensioner and disabled person of group II, and has a minor son to support.
Ivan Niyakiy currently holds the position of commercial director of Kyiv LLC Soul Marine. According to Opendatabot, Soul Marine was registered on June 16, 2023 with an authorized capital of 500 thousand hryvnia. The main activities indicated are non-specialized wholesale trade, auxiliary services for water transport, rental of transport and equipment, cultivation of grain crops (except rice), crops and oilseeds. The ultimate beneficial owner and founder of the company is Mikhail Kurand.
It’s interesting that the company plans to work in the place where Cranship used to be. That is, the fugitive businessman Ivanov created a new company with the “pound” at its head in order to circumvent the sanctions.
