From a fine to criminal charges: court refers case of former head of Volyn-based firm to the Bureau of Economic Security over JCB machinery fraud

From a fine to criminal charges: court refers case of former head of Volyn-based firm to the Bureau of Economic Security over JCB machinery fraud

Case regarding JCB machinery fraud: court transfers materials regarding ex-executive of Volyn company to BES.

This is reported in "Court by Schemes".

The Lyuboml District Court considered the case of customs rules violation by Mykola Boyarchuk, former director of LLC «STEM LUX». However, instead of an administrative fine, the materials were transferred to detectives of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) for investigation within a criminal proceeding.

Essence of the customs violation

According to the customs protocol, in July 2021, LLC «STEM LUX» imported a JCB loader into Ukraine worth over 26 thousand euros (approximately 847 thousand hryvnias at the exchange rate at that time).

During customs clearance, documents (invoice and CMR) were submitted, which later turned out to contain false information. In particular, data on the real seller, buyer, and invoice value of the machinery were falsified. Such actions were recognized as concealing goods from customs control (Part 1 of Article 483 of the Customs Code of Ukraine).

Criminal undertones and BES investigation

During the court hearing, circumstances emerged that take the case beyond an administrative offense. It turned out that detectives of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine are already conducting a large-scale pre-trial investigation (criminal proceeding under Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — evasion of taxes on an especially large scale).

According to BES information, officials of several companies, including LLC «STEM LUX», through a brokerage firm organized a scheme to evade taxes. They regularly submitted documents to customs with unreliable information about the year of manufacture and value of agricultural and cargo machinery.

The JCB loader is included in the list of objects of this criminal investigation.

Court decision

Judge of the Lyuboml District Court Angela Hayduk, having reviewed the materials of case No. 163/404/26, noted that administrative liability is applied only if there is no criminal liability. In addition, the Constitution of Ukraine prohibits repeated liability of the same type for the same violation.

Since the circumstances with the loader are already being investigated in the tax evasion investigation (a criminal offense), the court ruled:
- To transfer the materials regarding Mykola Boyarchuk to the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine.
- To attach them to criminal proceeding No. 72023000310000011.

Thus, the further fate of the former official and the qualification of his actions will be decided in the criminal proceeding.

For reference: LLC «STEM LUX» is mentioned in the BES investigation as a participant in a scheme to minimize customs payments through intermediaries.