Case description
The NABU and the SAPO accuse Vadym Alperin, Odesa-based businessman, of organizing a scheme to smuggle goods across the Ukrainian border. The state suffered over UAH 60 million in losses.
According to the prosecution, in mid-2016, Alperin established a criminal organization with structural units in Odesa and Kyiv. The group was joined by Alina Skomarova, former Director of the SFS Department; Serhii Tupalskyi, Deputy Chairman of Kyiv Customs; Alperin's colleagues Oleh Sebov and Yevhenii Iskold; and Serhii Shkuratov, a representative of private companies at the customs.
Alperin assigned the following tasks to the organization's members: importing textiles and light industry goods into Ukraine; acquiring or creating potential importing companies; delivering these goods to the customs office; bribing customs officials; paying understated customs duties to release these goods into circulation; filing customs declarations with understated customs values; and obtaining court decisions to adjust such understated customs values.
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Representatives of private enterprises filed customs declarations with an understated value of imported property. After that, Kyiv customs officials formally refused to accept the declared value, and then adjusted it without complying with the law.
As a result, representatives of the companies filed claims to cancel such judgments with the Odesa District Administrative Court. Judges were forced to grant such claims, and as a result, the goods were cleared at a reduced value.
In September 2017, the NABU initiated the seizure of more than UAH 450 million of funds of the companies involved in the fraud. Later, in December 2017, Alperin offered the NABU detectives a bribe of USD 800,000 to stop investigating the case and hand it over to the police, but the businessman was caught red-handed.
The defendants' actions were classified under Article 255(1), Article 212(3), Article 364(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
In 2019, Volodymyr Zelenskyy even promised a valuable gift to NABU employees who would detain the businessman. In April 2021, Alperin was deprived of his citizenship, and later the National Security and Defense Council imposed personal sanctions on him.
