Gulliver's case on alleged tax evasion sent to court - BES
Kyiv • UNN
The Economic Security Bureau accuses the management of the Gulliver shopping center of tax evasion in 2019-2021. The mall denies the allegations, claiming that they are unfounded and refuted by experts.
The Bureau of Economic Security has brought the case of the Gulliver shopping center on alleged tax evasion to court. This was reported by the press service of the bureau, UNN reports.
According to the investigation, the executives of the company that owns the mall and two other companies entered into a number of contracts for various services in 2019-2021, which were not actually provided.
Thus, the company unreasonably overstated the amount of the VAT tax credit. In addition, the company evaded taxes in particularly large amounts by conducting non-commodity transactions and services
The BES added that the tax evasion was allegedly confirmed by an analytical study, the conclusion of the State Tax Service and a forensic economic examination.
At the same time, the Gulliver shopping center in a comment to UNN reported that the accusation was far-fetched and unfounded, and that the criminal proceedings included the conclusions of forensic experts, which refuted the conclusions of analytical studies by the State Tax Service and the BES, as well as the position of the BES in this criminal proceeding as a whole.
None of the expert opinions received by the BES, as well as the analytical conclusions of the State Tax Service and the BES itself, confirm the fact that the management of LLC "TRI O", which owns the Gulliver shopping center, evaded taxes. All such conclusions contain the words "probably", "subject to", etc. The construction and technical forensic examination, which could have been the basis for doubts about the performance of the work, was not conducted in this criminal proceeding - it was denied (in this context, the further use of the seizure of the Gulliver shopping center as material evidence is also absurd). Instead, the defense provided the BES and the prosecutor's office with forensic expert opinions and recently issued certificates of no tax arrears by the State Tax Service itself, which completely refute the charges and the assumption of tax evasion
Context
Law enforcement officers are investigating criminal proceedings involving TRI O LLC, which has been the owner of Gulliver since 2020. However, in May 2024, part of the case file was separated into a separate criminal proceeding, in which the head of TRI O LLC and the heads of contractor companies were notified of suspicion.
It is worth noting that the property of Gulliver was recognized as material evidence in another criminal proceeding - a factual one, i.e. one that has been under investigation since 2020. As Gulliver representatives emphasized, in such circumstances, the complex lost its significance as material evidence of tax evasion.
