Did businessmen Groza and Naumenko trade Ukrainian grain with a sub-sanctioned company from the "smuggling list"?

The company Black Sea Commodities Trading Limited, registered in the United Arab Emirates, fell under the Ukrainian sanctions in early April 2021. However, this did not stop some Ukrainian businessmen from trading with her. In particular, as it was found out by UNN, after the introduction of restrictive measures, companies controlled by Sergei Groza and Vladimir Naumenko continued to work with it. 

Black Sea Commodities Trading Limited was included in the sanctions list on April 2, 2021  – later in the media these lists began to be called "contraband" or "smugglers' lists", because a significant part of the people and companies then under restrictive measures were caught in smuggling. 

According to the sanctions imposed against Black Sea Commodities Trading Limited, among other things, the company's assets were blocked, trading operations with it were completely stopped, transit or transportation of goods from the territories of Ukraine was completely stopped.

Interestingly, the company Black Sea Commodities Trading Limited with registration at 31291, UAE, Ras Al Khaimah, Al Jazeera Al Hamra, P.O. is practically a ghost, and exists, in fact, only on the sanctions lists. For that, there is a company Black Sea Commodities Limited with a similar registration address in open sources of information. What is the probability of a random coincidence of the address and the almost complete identity of the names? 

According to data on customs operations, companies controlled by Groza and Naumenko continued trading in Black Sea Commodities Limited and after the imposition of sanctions against the "mysterious" Black Sea Commodities Trading Limited, in particular, trading operations were carried out by such companies as Vtormetexport, Metalzukrain Corp LTD, Ferco, as well as Olympex Coupe International because of the debts on which Groza and Naumenko launched lawsuits with American investors. 

Groza and Naumenko probably decided not to lose a reliable sales channel for hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat, corn, barley and other grains, because their companies have been cooperating with Black Sea Commodities Limited since its foundation in 2015. Moreover, according to media Black Sea Commodities is part of the GNT Group (owned by Groza and Naumenko). GNT also includes all the companies listed above, which have been actively cooperating with Black Sea Commodities Limited for years. The fact that Black Sea Commodities Limited and Black Sea Commodities Trading Limited are probably the same company is also supported by the fact that Black Sea Commodities Limited was liquidated in October 2022.

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."