A distributor laundered UAH 1.3 billion through illegal trade in tobacco products and failed to pay UAH 300 million to the budget. This was reported by representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office in a story on the We Are Ukraine TV channel, UNN reports.
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As explained by a representative of the Prosecutor General's Office, the company documented the sale of tobacco products through companies with signs of fictitiousness.
The company's director, his deputy, and an accountant will be in the dock.
In total, since the beginning of 2024, law enforcement officers have registered more than 400 criminal proceedings for illegal trade and smuggling. About 300 of them have already been referred to court. Suspicions have been served on 220 people.
According to tobacco market experts, in the first quarter of this year, compared to the end of 2023, the share of illicit tobacco products decreased from 25.7% to 19%.
This is also due to the expertise of the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute, which helps to identify fakes and counterfeit products through its research.
"We are developing a collection of samples submitted to us by official manufacturers, and we compare these samples with those that we receive for testing. As a rule, well-known popular brands of official manufacturers are counterfeited," says Oleksandr Borzov, deputy head of the laboratory.
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Oleksandr Ruvin, Director of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, in an exclusive interview with UNN stated that reducing counterfeiting of tobacco products means increasing profits of legal producers and tax revenues to the budget. At the same time, there should be a clear understanding that only indisputable evidence from forensic experts makes it possible to bring counterfeiters to justice.
"It is the expertise that is evidence in court, so this is a joint task for both expert institutions and law enforcement agencies, all government agencies involved. Of course, the processes are very complicated, not all manufacturers are open to cooperation, and there are other difficulties. There are major players in Ukraine - tobacco manufacturers are large companies that are interested in ensuring that both the state and themselves do not suffer losses from counterfeiting. After all, if there are fewer counterfeits, the manufacturer will sell more of its legal products, make more profit, and, accordingly, more taxes will go to the state budget. They are ready to provide all samples, open data, and cooperate in every way. However, there are cases where the opposite is true, and it is logical to assume that in those cases there are a lot of risks, we are talking about very large-scale losses for the state, which are measured in huge amounts," Ruvin said.