The company of the famous smuggler Vadim Alperin "Agiros", which participated in the scheme of gray "export" of grain from the Olympex terminal in the Odessa region in 2023, when it was managed by the companies of Odessa businessmen Sergei Groza and Vladimir Naumenko, exported more than 20 thousand tons of corn to Egypt. Probably, this is exactly the grain that was pledged by American funds and was allegedly disposed of, writes UNN.
As stated in solution The Pechersk District Court of Kiev, which seized the property of Olympex Coupe International LLC, part of the GNT Group of Sergei Groza and Vladimir Naumenko, during a pre-trial investigation, law enforcement officers exposed a scheme for exporting agricultural products from Ukraine without paying taxes due to the use of business details with signs of "riskiness" during export operations.
In particular, according to the investigation, the actual delivery and payment for cash were made at production facilities, that is, directly at the controlled by Groza and Naumenko through the companies "Olympex Coupe International" and "Attollo Granum" terminal "Olympex".
Integral property complexes at the specified addresses are used in illegal activities for the storage, accumulation and transshipment of agricultural products of "risky" storage facilities (business entities – ed.)
During the interrogation on November 11, 2023, Vitaly Marchenko, who at that time was the director of Olympex Coupe International LLC, confirmed that his company provides services for loading, storing and unloading agricultural products.
According to the investigation, the following "risky" enterprises were used in the scheme: OUTSTAFF 19, EXPRESS ALL and AGROTRANS GROUP. With their help, at least 40 thousand tons of grain and oilseeds disappeared from the terminal in 2023.
During searches at the grain terminal, law enforcement officers found agricultural products without documents for the owners of the property.
The decision of the Odessa Court of Appeal says that in 2023, more than 20 thousand tons of corn were loaded onto the New Faith vessel on the Olympex. The grain exporter was Alperin's Agiros company. Law enforcement officers established this fact in December 2023. However, then the court refused to arrest the corn.
The managing company of the said vessel is GMZ SHIP MANAGEMENT CO. (HELLAS) S.A.
According to the investigation of journalists, this company violated the law several times, because the ships it operated entered the ports of the occupied Ukrainian Crimea after the annexation of the peninsula. In particular, it is in the database of naval vessels that, in violation of the legislation of Ukraine and international sanctions, entered the ports of the occupied Crimean peninsula after its annexation on March 18, 2014.
Moreover, one of the ships operated by GMZ SHIP MANAGEMENT CO. (HELLAS) S.A. entered the port of Novorossiysk (Russia) in August 2023, that is, after Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
So, the New Faith vessel mentioned in the court decision, operated by GMZ SHIP MANAGEMENT CO. (HELLAS) S.A., in January 2024 exported more than 20 thousand tons from the port of Olympex, probably "gray" corn for the Alperina company "Agiros".
It should be noted here that the GNT Group of companies, owned by businessmen Sergei Groza and Vladimir Naumenko, in 2019 and 2021 received investment loans from two American funds for the development of the Olympex grain terminal in Odessa, which it owned at that time. Having decided not to return the money to creditors, Groza and Naumenko took loans from the Ukrainian banks Vostok and Yuzhny secured by the property of the grain terminal, which was already secured by the Americans. And the grain, which was also pledged to the Americans, disappeared altogether, or, as Groza and Naumenko claim, wheat and corn, which were the most, were disposed of because they deteriorated.
Through a simple scheme using controlled companies and Ukrainian banks, Odessa businessmen resold the property to Olympex several times, thus trying to maintain control over the terminal.
Ukrainian law enforcement officers have opened several criminal cases in connection with the situation around Olympex, including the facts of "gray" grain exports stored at the terminal.
And creditors, in turn, demand the return of their own funds in international arbitrations, and quite successfully. In particular, the English arbitration court decided to freeze the assets of Groza and Naumenko worldwide.
You can read more about the conflict around the Olympex grain terminal in the article: "Groza and Naumenko's company GNT Group blocked the operation of the grain terminal in Odessa. A detailed chronology of the conflict."