Money fraudster Kostyantyn Kruhlov, having lost his "roof" at the Prosecutor General’s Office, is preparing to escape?

In Ukraine they like to leak dirt on each other. Thus, society will learn a lot of interesting things. For example, some time ago many resources published another list of candidates for sanctions from the National Security and Defence Council. Among them was the name of Kostyantyn Kruhlov.

This businessman from Dnipro was number six on the list. And sanctions were supposed to be imposed on him for organizing a network of powerful conversion centers through which billions float away from taxes. But as always, something went wrong - Kostyantyn Kruhlov, when the next sanctions lists were approved, was not included in them.

Another piece of information was immediately leaked explaining who helped Kostyantyn Kruhlov avoid sanctions - it turned out that he was covered up by Andriy Hmyrin, who is the Presidential Office’s "supervisor" of conversion centres. However, since then, the situation has changed somewhat - Hmyrin has come under pressure from the NABU, which retains a vestige of independence from the Office of the President, and is now wanted.

However, Hmyrin was not affected by Kruglov’s fate - his conversion centres continued to operate. It seems that the new "supervisor" of the conversion centres decided not to break the established schemes, and Kruhlov sensibly agreed to pay the new person the remuneration due. However, he still had to pay, so it didn’t matter who the cashier was.

However, all things considered, Kostyantyn Kruhlov began to strongly suspect that at any moment he could become a victim in another clan struggle for shadow flows, which is happening all the time in our country, and pawns, which Kruhlov is, are sacrificed in this struggle without hesitation. That’s why Kostyantyn Kruhlov decided to shield himself behind the shield of publicity. While specialised publications write about his shadow business, Kruhlov himself promotes himself as an expert in a variety of fields, from finance to psychology. However, serious publications do not publish his thoughts, but who cares? The main thing is to make his name public, and the rest will follow.

Who is Kostyantyn Kruhlov in reality? In fact, Kruglov is a clever swindler from Dnipro, and a very high-flying swindler at that. One day he realised that most of the money was in the budget and that he could make money by siphoning it off. But he himself was not allowed to access these flows - more vulgar people were already feeding there. However, all these upstarts who got into the budgetary flows need to somehow withdraw the stolen money, cash it in, and hide it. And hide it preferably abroad.

This is where Kruhlov and its conversion centres come in. They provide a full range of services - from fake VAT refunds to money withdrawal to offshore accounts. There is a list of some firms involved in these processes on the Internet, but it is pointless to cite it - these firms have already been "burned", left to fend for themselves, to the delight of their homeless owners, for whom they were registered.

Whether Kostyantyn Kruhlov is using the companies registered in his name for these purposes is a matter of debate. But under the circumstances, we can assume that it is their turn to be used. Moreover, their list is very impressive, and many of the companies on this list are involved in criminal cases of an economic nature.

Kruhlov’s most famous company is . Kostyantyn Kruhlov prefers to be identified as its owner, although he calls himself something else: "I am the owner of Universum Financial Group, a legal holding company established to provide consulting services."

But there is no "Universum Legal Holding" in the registers, but there is Universum Tax & Legal LLC. And for a "holding", the results are very deplorable. Both in the economic and legal sense. Here are the financial results. They are especially impressive against the background of assets. A holding company with one employee and three thousand hryvnias of profit per year is indeed "active participation in the stock market". There’s no arguing with that.

And here are the legal ones. Almost seventy court decisions. And all within the framework of a criminal trial.

Neither is inspiring. Neither Kruhlov himself, nor those who use the services of his “envelopes”: it is very likely that this process is held on by a thread and at any moment, within the framework of any criminal case, the accounts of all companies owned by Kostyantyn Kruhlov can simply be blocked. And then what should clients do who have “drived” their money there in an effort to cash it out or withdraw it? Moreover, there were already precedents.

Moreover, more than one company has been liquidated by court decisions. And those that are still working are mired in the courts. What future awaits them? And - again - what will happen to the money that will end up in the accounts at the time of liquidation or blocking?

And to this should be added the fact that the NABU put Andriy Hmyrin, Kostyantyn Kruhlov’s former patron, on the wanted list for a reason. And he fell victim not only to a showdown within the Presidential Office over flows. The fact is that the NABU is perhaps the only law enforcement agency in Ukraine that is not controlled by the Presidential Office. Of course, it cannot be called independent, but, unfortunately for Andriy Yermak and other prominent figures, it does not have full control over NABU.

The reason for this semi-independence is simple: the key levers of influence on NABU are retained by Western partners, primarily the US Presidential Administration, on whose instructions NABU was created. And sometimes NABU detectives follow the instructions of the White House rather than the Prosecutor General’s Office. With which, no matter how much the Ukrainian authorities want to argue, they cannot. Because they will not give money to cut off the gas. Which is then withdrawn through envelopes.

Obviously, Kruhlov himself understands this. That’s why he became a public figure and got a lawyer’s licence. Just like Bakanov. And don’t laugh at these obviously bought "crusts" - the status of a lawyer gives good immunity from criminal prosecution, a criminal case against a lawyer can only be initiated at the level of the Prosecutor General’s Office. And the Prosecutor General, as we all remember, is "one hundred per cent my man". And Kruhlov understands this.

However, this is a personal matter for Kruhlov. But the money entrusted to him by his clients is no longer just about the possibility of arresting Kostyantyn Kruhlov. Any investigator can initiate a criminal case against a legal entity suspected of tax evasion or money laundering by issuing a resolution. By the time they get to Kruhlov himself, he will have time to flee Ukraine. To Crete, for example, where he has long had his own villa. But the money blocked in the companies’ accounts will remain here. So potential clients of Kostyantyn Kruhlov’s conversion centres can be reminded of an ancient Jewish wisdom: do you really need it?