Tax evasion for hundreds of millions during the war, fictitious warehouses, non-existent sugar and peat, illegal sand washing, connections with ex-regionals, bribery of prosecutors and persecution of the BEB.
This is an incomplete list of criminal actions that have recently been organized by the owners of the Sobi Limited Liability Company (hereinafter referred to as SOBI LLC) Sergey Nadeev and Anatoly Shaloplut.
So, recently, the Main Detective Division of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as BEB), under the procedural guidance of the Office of the Prosecutor General (hereinafter referred to as OGP), opened criminal proceedings No. 72023000210000051 on the facts of tax evasion, forgery of documents and violation of rules for the use of subsoil.
According to court documents dated January 15, 2024, BEB and OPU detectives claim that SOBI LLC used fictitious companies from which they allegedly bought sugar and peat. In fact, no transactions were carried out, which helped to simply write off money as expenses and avoid paying taxes, primarily VAT.
“Currently, there has been no further sale of sugar by SOBI LLC and there are no warehouses for its storage, which indicates the lack of marketability of the transactions carried out for the purpose of illegally generating expenses and a VAT tax credit in the accounting for a limited liability company,” it says. document.
Thus, Sobi LLC, according to the Bureau of Economic Security, was able to accrue 103.5 million UAH. expenses that did not exist, including 17.2 million UAH. VAT. The company allegedly evaded paying taxes by UAH 55.2 million in the period from 2020 to 2023.
“By carrying out risky business transactions with Kraevid LLC for the acquisition of goods and materials (white crystalline sugar and peat briquettes) in the amount of UAH 103,476,846.40, which did not entail real legal consequences and are non-commodity,” the detectives emphasize.
All violations specified in the criminal case were revealed after searches, inspections of territories and other procedural actions that were carried out on the basis of the above-mentioned court decision. In particular, the absence of warehouses in which sugar and peat should have been stored was confirmed; sand washing did not take place in the areas designated by the enterprise; documents with signs of fictitiousness were identified, etc.
The owners of SOBI LLC immediately responded to these facts and once again took the path of “bribery.”
So, as our source in law enforcement agencies said, the case was put on hold by secret order of the Office of the Prosecutor General.
“Such “agreements” bypassed BEB representatives, the issue was resolved with the prosecutor’s office. Thanks to this, it became impossible to properly document all the circumstances of the offenses. The UCP gave the order to slow things down. Rumor has it that such an unreliable solution to the issue cost Nadeen $500 thousand,” the source said.
This information may be true, because at the beginning of May articles in defense of SOBI LLC were already published. In the article, direct negativity is directed only towards representatives of the Bureau of Economic Security. Journalists bypassed the Prosecutor General's Office. In addition, quotes from company representatives are in no way supported by facts. It is clear to the naked eye that such articles have signs of being ordered and can be regarded as harassment of a law enforcement agency, in this case, the BEB.
Another interesting example of abuse is the cooperation of Sobi LLC Nadeev and Shaloplut with Ukrbudtrestservice LLC. The latter company, mining sand in the Kyiv region, underestimated production volumes, selling the unaccounted volume (547,664 tons) to Sobi LLC for only 33 hryvnia per ton. Subsequently, the company of Sergei Nadeev and Anatoly Shaloplut resold sand for 160 hryvnia per ton. Thus, having earned UAH 87.5 million from this.
By the way, according to the YouControl service, Ukrbudtrestservice LLC is part of a group of companies owned by People’s Deputy of Ukraine Nestor Shufrych. The latter has been in jail for several months now on suspicion of high treason and a number of other crimes.
We were able to find other investigations into the abuses of Nadeev and Shaloplut.
For some reason, the articles were removed from the StopCor website. This once again confirms that those involved in criminal cases very quickly began to “cleanse” the Internet of negativity about themselves. However, we managed to find and restore StopCor articles on our website.
In particular, investigative journalists reported that in the village of Zazimye (Brovary district, Kyiv region), sand diggers caused the Desna River to overflow its banks. So, the water “took” more than 15 meters of land. The company that mines sand is SOBI LLC.
Another investigation noted that “according to Stop Corruption lawyers, in the village of Pogreby, Brovary district, Kyiv region, on the river. In Desna, officials of SOBI LLC organized and carried out illegal mining of minerals (sand) by hydrowashing.” Due to the fact that the Sobi company steals sand and destroys roads in Kyiv and its environs, local and human rights activists came out to protest. However, the so-called titushki were set against the people from the village of Pogreby.
This is only a small part of the possible abuses by the owners of SOBI LLC. We will continue to further explore the schemes for the illegal enrichment of entrepreneurs during the war.
In turn, the editors of INFORMER publicly appeal to the leadership of the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Bureau of Economic Security, the State Bureau of Investigation and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau to verify the above facts and a comprehensive investigation of possible illegal actions of the owners of SOBI LLC. We hope that our law enforcement officers will be able to bring the case to completion so that unpaid taxes still end up in the state budget to strengthen Ukraine’s defense capability.
