Tax evaders: Olkom sells goods for cash

Tax evaders: Olkom sells goods for cash

Martial law did not become a motivation for businesses to pay taxes in good faith and support the state, including the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The tax evader has now been identified as PrJSC Kyiv Margarine Plant (EDRPOU 00333581), an industrial enterprise that has been specialising in the production of margarine and similar animal fats for 20 years. "High quality, innovative technologies and a focus on the needs of our customers and partners allow us to easily adapt to the demands of the modern market, supplying products to 27 countries, including the EU and the US," reads the enthusiastic statement on the website of the Olkom trademark owned by PrJSC Kyiv Margarine Plant (KMP). The Ukrainian public is familiar with Olkom mayonnaise, oil and margarine from store shelves.

However, in reality, the situation around the margarine plant and Olkom TM is not as bright as it is reported on the website.

The fact of Olkom’s large-scale tax evasion is noteworthy: it has been reported that some of its products are sold for cash. In other words, Olkom sells its "mayonnaise" outside the tax register and deliberately evades taxes. The proceeds are not used to maintain the company, but go into the pockets of its owners, who enrich themselves illegally. In turn, the state loses a significant amount of budget revenues. It should be added that in 2023, out of a revenue of UAH 480 million, the profit was only about UAH 6 million, or 1%. If Olkom were to officially sell its products, the revenue and profit margins would be many times higher.

It is known from open sources that the owners of the plant are Hanna Oleksenko and Olha Oleksenko with 50.28% and 43.86% ownership in the authorised capital, respectively. The negligence of the owners of the margarine plant led to the financial insolvency of the company. The owners of the Kyiv Margarine Plant’s fondness for bank loans from banking institutions that were once loyal to the company, such as Vostok, International Investment Bank, and Raiffeisen Bank, ultimately led to the prohibition and seizure of the real estate of PJSC KMZ. In other words, the saga of the plant’s credit history consisted of a repeating pattern: mortgage agreement -> encumbrance by the bank in the form of prohibitions and arrests -> termination of encumbrance.

Currently, the company is on the verge of default and complete financial insolvency, as evidenced by a number of outstanding loans. As an example, in 2021, a mortgage agreement was executed between the margarine plant and Alfa-Bank (the current Sense Bank) for UAH 90,000,000 until 2026 and for UAH 110,000,000 until March 2024.

But in reality, it turns out that the margarine factory is not only unable to repay the existing loans, moreover, it is not even able to service them. Instead of using anti-crisis management tools for the enterprise, the owners Hanna Oleksenko and Olha Oleksenko probably decided to take a course of obtaining additional loans from several banking institutions at once, such as Sense Bank, UKRGASBANK and FUIB, which only PrJSC has accumulated debt and increased its credit burden. The purpose of new lending attempts is to pay off the interest of previous ones. Typically, such a scheme is used to drive a company into debt irrevocably and completely, and then declare it bankrupt. Since paying accrued interest on a loan at the expense of a new loan leads to the fact that enterprises fall into endless debt, and, accordingly, there can be no economic stability for PrJSC “Kyiv Margarine Plant” and TM “Olkom” either in the present or in the future time

In addition, the media became aware of fraudulent actions on the part of the plant’s owners: the Kyiv Margarine Plant received funds from several different financial institutions secured by the same property, which grossly violates the law. The issue of opening criminal proceedings in this regard is being decided.

Banks, receiving a request for a loan from business entities, must research and predict the sources of repayment of this loan. The question is, do the banking institutions, to which the owner Oleksenko turns for a loan, pay attention to the credit history of PJSC “Kyiv Margarine Plant” and the facts of selling products for “cash”?

Finally, as noted above, tax evasion, fraud on collateral and attempts by the owners of Olkom to get a new loan look like a deliberate measure to drive the plant into an irrevocable debt hole and bankruptcy, but in no way to save the enterprise and its future development. Conscientious workers of the plant, I wonder if the owners know about this plan?

informer.today