State Tax Service helped to expose scheme of legalization of interregional drug cartel's income - Kravchenko

The State Tax Service helped law enforcement officers expose a scheme to legalize the proceeds of an interregional drug cartel for more than UAH 200 million. This was reported by the head of the State Tax Service Ruslan Kravchenko, UNN reports.

With the assistance of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, law enforcement officers uncovered a group that legalized the proceeds of a drug syndicate with a monthly turnover of UAH 18 million. The money laundering network involved more than a thousand so-called "drops" - people who provided access to their bank accounts for a fee for shady transactions

According to him, it was established that the participants in the scheme created a network of front persons who provided their data for opening accounts and created personal accounts in mobile applications for a fee. The accounts of these citizens received proceeds from the illegal sale of raw materials for the manufacture of amphetamine. As a result, more than two hundred million hryvnias were withdrawn from their accounts to two cryptocurrency wallets over the course of a year, which were then cashed out in Cyprus.

"Based on the analysis of the Department for Prevention of Financial Transactions Related to Money Laundering of the State Tax Service, law enforcement officers identified ways and mechanisms for legalizing the proceeds of crime, identified the defendants and their role in the scheme," Kravchenko said.

The Head of the State Tax Service noted that the police conducted an operation to liquidate the criminal organization. Some of the defendants are being prosecuted for legalization (laundering) of the proceeds of crime (Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code).

Addendum

In his evening address on February 4 , President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy toldwhat results have been achieved after the change of leadership of the State Tax Service and the State Financial Monitoring Service.