Pressure on grain growers: what does Odesa smuggler Alperin have to do with it

Pressure on grain growers: what does Odesa smuggler Alperin have to do with it

The work of the Grain Corridor is what saves the Ukrainian economy, but even here it is not without smuggling schemes. Because the majority, about 70% of the grain, passes through the shell companies of Vadym Alperin, who has been deprived of citizenship.

What KP.UA writes about with reference to the telegram channel "Viy" . And a significant part of the scheme functions thanks to the careful support of the Odesa BES.

Grain for cash

The shadow grain market existed long before the full-scale invasion, and today its scale has only grown. It’s all banally simple: grain is bought for cash, registered to shell companies that export it, the cargo changes owners along the way, and thus the money remains with the intermediaries and does not reach the state budget.

From this it becomes clear that in order to pull this off, you need to have several hundred companies, support from the tax, customs and BES, and it is unlikely that this story begins and ends in the Odesa region. Here Vadym Alperin comes into the picture, who has all the listed aspects of the black grain market. Among his companies, which in 2022 changed the KVED to transport grain, is "Agiros". The company has been sanctioned since April 2024 by the decision of the National Security and Defence Council, but according to court registers, it worked in tandem with Olimpex Kupe International LLC - the Olimpex grain terminal. As reported by the RBC-Ukraine publication, about 150 thousand tons of grain now pass through this terminal per month. Taking into account the lowest price per ton, the owner of the company earns more than 22 million euros per month. And this money does not go to the budget. Both companies are linked to Alperin, who has been among the top ten largest Ukrainian smugglers since 2021, according to the president.

Other exporters

There remains about 30% of grain exported by other market participants and reports from the tax, customs and BES on combating grain smuggling. In order to cover up Alperin’s scheme and implement the Kyiv plan from the budget and earn a little, the Odesa BES needs to cooperate with other exporters. This cooperation is really one-sided and for a fee.

Other companies that can export the remaining grain after Alperin have two options from Serhiy Muntyan, the head of the Odesa BES. The first option is to not be able to export the grain and it will spoil. The second is to export the goods for a separate fee, with the participation of a company that the BES will offer, and this, as practice has shown, happens in this case. Grain without origin appears on this front company, which the BES magically finds and solves this crime. The goods are seized, a fine is imposed for illegal export of grain and non-payment of taxes, and legal proceedings begin. The fine goes to the state budget, the BES reports on its work. The grain is again exported by a front company, enriching only its own pockets.

"That’s already happened"

Interestingly, the Olimpex terminal has its own separate history. The property of Olimpex Coupe International LLC, part of the GNT Group structure of Hroza and Naumenko, was arrested in 2023 by a decision of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv , at the suit of the Kyiv BES. Law enforcement officers exposed a scheme for exporting agricultural products from Ukraine without paying taxes due to the use of details of enterprises with signs of "riskiness" during export operations, UNN reports.

That is, it was known that payments were made in cash, front companies were discovered, during searches they found about 22.6 thousand tons of wheat, almost 9 thousand tons of corn and 11 thousand tons of soybeans without documents on the owners of the property.

The terminal had a contract, and then illegally bought half of it through Attollo Granum LLC, which was also a company of Hroza and Naumenko and collaborated with Alperin.

Experts interviewed by UNN claim that last year alone (2023, - ed.) the company "Attolo Granum" received $37 million in net profit.

At the same time, it officially declared losses of more than UAH 1.8 million,” the publication noted.

It is difficult to calculate how much money the state budget lost, but it was definitely a lot.

crime-ru.com