Scandalous money launderer Yevhen Pulya is increasing the volumes of money laundering

Scandalous money launderer Yevhen Pulya is increasing the volumes of money laundering

The controversial and one of the biggest converters in Ukraine, Yevhen Pulya, is ramping up his illegal activities.

Previously, Pulya was one of the financial wallets of Volodymyr Hroysman. After the change of power, he increased his influence. Now he has actively expanded his activities in the Kherson region, where his old acquaintance Ihor Klym was appointed as head of the tax office. The operational activity of conversion centers in the Kherson region after Klym’s appointment is a widely discussed topic. However, there is no reaction from the tax authorities’ leadership. It’s no wonder, as Yevhen Pulya bought the position for Klym from the acting head of the State Tax Service, Yevhen Oleynikov. Oleynikov has been overseeing the work of these conversion centers for two years. It’s Oleynikov and Lyubchenko who receive a percentage from conversion centers’ operations nationwide.

After the National Security and Defence Council imposed sanctions on Ukraine’s largest smugglers, Pulya became concerned that he might be next. It was in spring that he began buying commissioned interviews claiming he supposedly had no connection to money laundering, and these were just malicious rumors. He started telling tales about supposedly investing in nanotechnology, developing a quantum helmet for medical purposes. In practice, it turned out he opened an elite medical center, “Medeus,” in Kyiv’s Pechersk district, registered under his wife, Anna Pulya. Dirty money from laundering must still be somehow legalized. And Pulya has lots of money.

Another reason why Pulya began storming into the medical sphere is quite banal. At the end of 2020, media reported that Israeli Pfizer vaccines were smuggled into Ukraine. It was meant for the state’s top leaders, ministers, and MPs. By the end of 2020, there were no batches of Covid-19 vaccines in Ukraine.

Vaccination was carried out during Christmas holidays at the "Medeus" medical center, which Pulya had opened shortly before. Since the task set before him was accomplished, the converter was given the green light for money laundering. He has contacts in the President’s Office and now serves, among others, companies from the road cartel "Great Construction." There, VAT accounts for billions of hryvnias that Pulya helps road workers optimize. Naturally, he doesn’t forget about senior partners from the President’s Office as well.

The scheme for tax optimization by converters is standard: controlled transit-conversion and fictitious companies provide services for the formation and sale of fictitious tax credit and VAT. Documentary cover for non-goods operations regarding the illegal formation of tax credit is provided to enterprises in the real sector of the economy. The total turnover of the scheme amounted to over 28 billion hryvnias in six months of 2021.

Below is a brief list of companies involved in the scheme:

Such volumes indicate that Pulya has found influential patrons from the current government who help him become the largest converter in Ukraine.

Previously, Pulya was already involved in money laundering through occupied territories, which led to an investigation by the Security Service of Ukraine. Also, in the court registry, there is information that Pulya’s company, LLC FC “Vap-Capital,” services clients who conduct financial operations and pay taxes in the territories of the terrorist formations “DPR” and “LPR,” contrary to the National Bank of Ukraine’s Board resolution dated 06.08.2014. Yet, influential people helped avoid criminal responsibility.

Pulya loves a luxurious life. Media had already reported that he became famous for driving around Ukraine’s capital in two Rolls-Royce cars, bearing numbers KA 0008 SK and AA 8547 MM. The price for one such car is on average 600,000 euros. How such a young guy earned such wealth is anyone’s guess. Although why guess, if it’s already clear to everyone. Apart from Pulya, the beneficiaries of such money laundering schemes are all the tax department’s leadership and officials from the President’s Office.

Author: Oleh Samson