Lviv businessman brothers Ostap and Yuriy Doskichi with their fortune could easily be included in the ranking of the richest Ukrainians according to the business publication Forbes, but they are not there, and in general, entrepreneurs are not willing to publicly talk about how they reached such significant heights. And this can be understood, because if not the company founded by the Doskich family, then a new criminal proceeding immediately arises.
The favorite articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine of Lviv businessmen are tax evasion, money laundering, theft of state property and others. With such baggage, most people would have ended up behind bars long ago, but Doskichev has everything under control. As we previously noted, cases against their businesses “strangely” end up in the hands of judges accused of corruption, unknown origins of funds and outright unfair decisions. Also, law enforcement agencies are in no hurry to hand over suspicions to businessmen. Not one of the dozens of criminal proceedings initiated against the businesses of the Doskichev family reached its logical conclusion - the perpetrators were not convicted.
Thus, according to our calculations, if we add up the entire amount of damage in criminal proceedings in which the companies of the Doskich brothers and enterprises close to them appear, the state has lost more than a billion hryvnia. And that's just what we were able to discover. One can only guess what the real damage is from the machinations of the companies of Lviv entrepreneurs. However, it seems to us that during the war, when the entire state is engaged in volunteer activities, collecting bit by bit funds for the most necessary things at the front, this amount of damage would be enough for a long prison sentence.
Criminal trail
The activities of the Doskich brothers cover dozens of industries at once. However, the greatest profit comes from the production of cables, copper products, plastics, construction and others. In order to demonstrate only part of the criminal schemes that are being implemented by the companies of Yuri and Ostap Doskichev, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with the materials of criminal proceedings.
The most high-profile case, which is being investigated against the enterprises of the Lviv brothers, has now “stalled out”. Why this happened is, of course, a rhetorical question. However, just a few years ago, production had great prospects. We are talking about criminal proceedings, No. 12020000000000709, entered into the ERDR on July 18, 2020 on the fact of the seizure of funds by officials of TZDO "GAL-KAT", in an especially large amount, on the grounds of a criminal offense under Part 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Although the established amount of damage in this criminal proceeding is relatively small, there are two important points: firstly, it concerns the scheme for theft of funds from the Ukrzaliznytsia joint-stock company. Secondly, in the court documents on the conduct of procedural actions in the proceedings, the Doskichi brothers and their participation in the theft of UZ property were directly indicated.
The production was particularly actively investigated in 2020-2021. Sources in law enforcement agencies reported that on January 22, 2021, searches were carried out at the location of the Galician Cable Company enterprise, owned by the Doskich brothers, documents important for the investigation of criminal proceedings were seized, but already in October of the same year, the management of the NPU, in agreement with the Office of the General The prosecutor of Ukraine decides to close the proceedings. As our source in law enforcement agencies stated: “This happened precisely after irrefutable evidence was collected of the participation of the Doskich brothers and at least their three enterprises in the scheme around UZ.”
This criminal proceeding is “demonstrative”, because it shows us the real state of affairs: in the materials of the criminal proceeding it was categorically stated that the Doskichi brothers are participants in a criminal scheme, but after active investigative actions the case is closed.
But not all problems can be resolved. One of the criminal proceedings, which is currently being actively investigated by investigators for particularly important cases of the State Bureau of Investigation, was included in the ERDR under No. 42023000000000709 dated 04/28/2023 on the grounds of criminal offenses under Part 5 of Art. 185, part 3 art. 358, part 3 art. 362 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, that is, theft, forgery of documents and unauthorized interference in computer systems.
To briefly explain what exactly the enterprises of the Doskichev brothers and dozens of other companies are suspected of, this is a massive multi-step scheme. The proceedings included theft of tax limits, fictitious agreements and the withdrawal of funds paid for government contracts. The damage is currently unknown for certain, but it amounts to at least 300 million hryvnia, which is a record for productions in which Lviv businessmen Ostap and Yuriy Doskichi appear.
This criminal proceeding is active, the last investigative actions were carried out in early June of this year, however, here, too, the DBI receives “spikes in its wheels.” The most “humane” Ukrainian court, the Pechersky District Court of the capital, did not satisfy the investigators’ request to conduct searches in enterprises involved in the fraud.
But the Doskiches don’t only sketch with their hands. Previously, we talked about how, probably, the brothers, using dummies, opened the company “Ukr-Med”, which existed for only 2 years and 3 months, but during this time it managed to become a defendant in criminal proceedings, included in ERDR No. 4201810000000908 dated September 28 .2020 on grounds of criminal offenses provided for in Part 3 of Art. 212, part 3 art. 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (tax evasion and legalization of proceeds from crime). The company suddenly went bankrupt, leaving behind a debt to the tax authorities in the amount of 117 million hryvnia and criminal proceedings. Regarding crime, an interesting situation arose: given that, according to the investigation, more than a hundred companies were involved in the scheme, it was not possible (or they did not want to) calculate the losses. However, as sources in the investigation told us, we are talking about hundreds of millions, and possibly a billion hryvnia, but so far it will not be possible to establish the truth in the proceedings, because the investigators “did not have time” to investigate it, the case was closed due to the statute of limitations.
The eternal tax problem
In addition to outright criminal schemes in which companies owned in turn by the Doskich brothers take part, we also drew attention to the constant problems with the tax authorities of these same enterprises. Most of the businesses of Lviv oligarchs have problems paying taxes, which is confirmed by tax decision messages.
Their array is surprising - we are talking about hundreds of decisions of the State Tax Service on the collection of unpaid taxes from Doskichev companies.
On January 10, 2023, the Lviv region traffic police conducted an inspection of the Ukr-Polymer company. During the audit, it was found that the Doskichev enterprise evaded paying taxes during customs clearance of goods, as a result, a tax notification-decision dated February 13, 2023 No. 2732/13-01-04-07 / 37986336 was adopted on the additional assessment of a tax liability of 29 UAH and application UAH 145,825 in penalties.
Another tax evasion scheme used by Doskichev companies is the so-called “carousel”. In order to reduce the profits of their own enterprises, they enter into non-existent agreements between them. Thus, companies receive a lower tax burden. The fiscal authorities first found out about this, as evidenced by tax audit data:
And subsequently a number of criminal proceedings were started: dated September 28, 2018 No. 42018100000000908 on grounds of criminal offenses under Part 3 of Art. 212, part 3 art. 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, dated November 13, 2017 under No. 4201700000003630 on the grounds of a criminal offense under Part 3 of Art. 212, part 3 art. 209, part 2 art. 205 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, in which Ukrmed LLC is a defendant; dated November 13, 2017 under No. 4201700000003630 on grounds of a criminal offense under Part 3 of Art. 212, part 3 art. 209, part 2 art. 205 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the defendant in the criminal case is ODO “Ukr-Aluminium”; dated April 24, 2020 No. 42020000000000776 on grounds of criminal offenses under Part 5 of Art. 27, part 2 art. 364, part 5 art. 27, part 5 art. 191, part 5 art. 27, part 3 art. 212, part 5 art. 27, part 2 art. 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, within which Galich-Met LLC appears.
This scale of theft is absolutely record-breaking. It seems that even the companies of the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, who is in a pre-trial detention center, did not implement such a scheme. However, there is one fundamental difference between Kolomyisky and Doskichi: the Lviv businessman brothers, despite dozens of criminal proceedings and at least a billion hryvnia in damage to the state, remain free. How long?
