"Gray" iPhone: Why small chains sell Apple equipment cheaper

In Ukraine, the cost of equipment, including the famous American brand Apple, can vary significantly from store to store. Such pricing remained a mystery - one could only speculate about gray exports or tax minimization. However, a letter in the possession of the UNN editorial office opened the veil of secrecy and dotted all the "i's".

The letter in question was sent by some small market players to the relevant authorities. In the document, these players describe in detail the schemes that, according to them, are used by large technology retailers. But here's the catch, the authors of the letter, trying to divert suspicion from themselves, described in detail their own schemes, which they have been using for years, and which they do not disdain now, profiting from consumers and evading taxes worth billions of hryvnias. The schemes cover both "holes" in customs and loopholes in legislation. UNN tried to figure out how it works.

Fast and cheap

When buying a brand new iPhone in Ukraine, which has just been released by Apple, have you ever wondered how it got to Ukrainian stores so quickly? While the whole world is hunting for a novelty and, for example, Americans are ready to stand in line for a day, in Ukraine it can already be purchased in small networks at a fairly attractive price. This looks especially interesting in the context of complicated logistics during the war unleashed by Russia.

It would be difficult to understand why this is happening if it were not for the schemes described in the letter. It turned out that in order to be able to compete with powerful technology retailers, these small players use a well-thought-out scheme that allows them to quickly supply new products and sell them at a price often lower than that offered by large marketplaces.

The scheme by which everything works, in a simplified form, looks like this: the purchase of "gray" equipment, its illegal import and sale through a number of sole proprietorships. And then, according to the classics, the profit is withdrawn to cryptocurrency and abroad.

Smuggling under the guise of spare parts

According to the data available to UNN, Apple equipment, which is then sold in Ukraine by networks, let's conditionally call them "Rotten Apples", is purchased illegally through intermediaries in Southeast Asia, in particular in China, Hong Kong and Vietnam. It is known that the production of the American company Apple is located there.

So, through intermediaries in these countries, "Rotten Apples" buy uncertified iPhones and other equipment, if it is about new products that are just being released to the market. In the case of older models, it is often equipment that has been restored at the factory, that is, it has already been in use.

These "novelties" are imported into Ukraine by minibuses with forged customs declarations. And here, obviously, the management of "Rotten Apples" enlisted the support of the customs management, because news about seized batches of gray iPhones appear in the media extremely rarely and look, rather, like window dressing.

Such declarations state that cheap electronic accessories are being imported, although in fact expensive smartphones, laptops and other equipment are being imported. Customs officials actually provide a "green corridor" for such consignments.

Sole proprietors as a tax avoidance scheme

After such machinations, illegally imported equipment ends up on store shelves. To reduce the tax burden, the network of stores is divided into sole proprietorships that sell the goods.

Buyers of Apple products have repeatedly noticed that the checks, if the store still issues them (and this often does not happen), either do not indicate the business entity that sells the goods at all, or indicate a sole proprietorship. Moreover, consumers point out that in different stores of the same network, the names of companies in the checks differ. It may also happen that when buying several gadgets in one store at the same time, you will be offered to split them into different checks and, accordingly, they will indicate different business entities. This indicates the ramified network of sole proprietorships that act as sellers of goods to the consumer.

Due to the fact that sellers do not always issue checks and payment often passes by cash registers, the buyer receives the goods without a guarantee and registration in Ukrainian service databases. But such a scheme of gadget smugglers allows to give a "pleasant discount" and the buyer does not even realize that he is actually helping the dealers to evade taxes.

The tax understatement scheme allows "gray" retailers to reduce the cost of goods by 20-30% compared to white market players who pay all taxes and sell certified official goods. So this is the main explanation why the iPhone in the conditional "Rotten Apples" is cheaper than elsewhere. In addition, this also explains why these stores are so eager to "impose" an additional, paid guarantee on the equipment, although according to the law it should be included in the price of the goods.

The state, through these schemes, loses billions of hryvnias in tax revenues.

Where is the money?

A ramified network of sole proprietorships allows owners of small networks not only to avoid paying taxes worth billions of hryvnias, but also to withdraw these billions from countless accounts. The most common and easiest way that contraband gadgeteers do not hesitate to use is cryptocurrency wallets. Currently, digital assets have not yet been legalized in Ukraine, which means that it is impossible to track them. This allows you to accumulate wealth outside the eyes of the tax authorities, ensures the anonymity of owners and the unhindered withdrawal of funds abroad. In addition, crypto significantly complicates law enforcement investigations into the legalization of illegally earned money.

The scheme is reliable and has been tested by many corrupt officials. So the gray market makes profits, almost without leaving traces for financial monitoring.

TCC is no longer a threat

In the context of the work of some gray networks of electronics stores, the mobilization of their employees, or rather its practical absence, deserves special attention. In one of these companies, UNN was told that there are currently unofficial agreements with the management of the TCC that employees of their stores will not be mobilized.

In addition, to avoid mobilization, the owners and management of the networks, according to interlocutors, help employees to draw up fake medical certificates. Therefore, not only prosecutors in our state are sick and unfit.

No less interesting is another option for evading military service. Especially "valuable" employees are officially employed at critical enterprises, which allows them to officially obtain a reservation from mobilization, the agency's interlocutors said.

So here, too, schemes have been built and loopholes have been found, which allows the gray business to fill its own pockets while the best die defending the state from enemy invasion.

By going public, illegal equipment traders actually shot themselves in the foot, because they revealed in detail how their networks "heat up" buyers and the state for billions. So now law enforcement has an accurate direction in which to conduct investigations and finally stop the illegal import of equipment into Ukraine.