Evasion of 27 million UAH in rent payments for subsoil use: director of mining enterprise to be tried in Vinnytsia region

An indictment has been sent to court against the director of a mining enterprise in Vinnytsia region, who is suspected of organizing a scheme to evade rent payments for subsoil use totaling over UAH 27 million. This was reported by UNN with reference to the Prosecutor General's Office.

As UNN learned from its own sources, the case concerns Andriy Nesterenko, the former director of "Vinnytsia Quarry Management."

Under the procedural guidance of the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office of the Prosecutor General's Office, the pre-trial investigation has been completed and an indictment has been sent to court against the director of the enterprise, who organized a scheme to evade rent payments for subsoil use totaling over UAH 27 million.

He is charged with intentional tax evasion, which led to the non-receipt of funds by the budget on a particularly large scale (Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The investigation established that in the period from 2020 to 2024, having a special permit for subsoil use, the enterprise extracted granite in the Vinnytsia region.

According to the decision of the State Commission of Ukraine on Mineral Reserves, from the extracted raw materials, it was supposed to produce commercial products - crushed stone and gravel - and pay rent from the value of their sale.

The Prosecutor General's Office notes that the director of the enterprise organized the sale of extracted products to a related entity at artificially low prices - from 40 to 90 hryvnias per ton. In total, about 7.5 million m³ of granite products were sold. Subsequently, this enterprise resold the goods at market prices to construction companies.

As a result of this scheme, over UAH 27 million in rent payments were not received by the state budget.

Addition

In August of this year, the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine reported suspicion to the former head of a mining enterprise who, during 2020-2024, intentionally understated prices for extracted granite and evaded payment of UAH 27 million in rent payments.

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko reported that since June of this year, prosecutors have reported over 60 suspicions of illegal mineral extraction, and 47 indictments have been sent to court.

What else is known?

Earlier, Andriy Nesterenko was noticed in the story with the assets of PJSC "Gaztranzit", which previously belonged to the Russian "Gazprom".

In 2020, ARMA transferred to "Ukrtransgaz" the management of shares of PJSC "Gaztranzit" (a 40.2% stake), which belonged to "Gazprom".

In 2017, the court ordered "Gazprom" to pay over UAH 171 million to the state budget of Ukraine for violating economic competition legislation. As a result, 40.2% of "Gazprom" shares in "Gaztranzit" were sold in 2019 on the PFTM stock exchange for UAH 41 million.

The SAP reported that the initial valuation of the shares was over 630,000,000 hryvnias.

Six months later, another valuation of the shares of LLC "Nika-Expert" was carried out, but their estimated value sharply decreased to 40,000,000 hryvnias, although the annual undistributed profit of the specified company exceeded 100,000,000 hryvnias.

Despite the above, as a result of the auction, the specified asset was sold to one of the investment companies for 41,000,000 hryvnias. That is, the corrupt discount amounted to 93%, and the state lost approximately 600,000,000 hryvnias in income.

At the time when 40.2% of "Gaztranzit" shares were bought by the venture fund "Goldman", the ultimate beneficiary of the fund was Andriy Nesterenko.

In January 2020, Goldman's shares in Gazprom were recognized as material evidence in the case and seized.