Hid millions from the budget: Odesa firm caught in schemes importing fertilizers via Poland

Hid millions from the budget: Odesa firm caught in schemes importing fertilizers via Poland

On May 26, 2026, the Khadzhibey District Court of Odesa considered a case on violation of customs rules against the director of LLC «AGROINDUSTRIAL» Stepova Valentyna.

This is reported by the Telegram channel «Court on Schemes» with reference to case No. 521/4118/26.

The essence of the import operation

In February 2025, LLC «AGROINDUSTRIAL» (represented by director Valentyna Stepova) imported a large batch of mineral fertilizers into Ukraine — 8,000 tons of ammonium sulfate. The cargo arrived from China to the port of «Pivdennyi» on the vessel SHUN FU WANG.

The customs declaration indicated the invoice value of the goods at USD 1,568,000 (customs value — UAH 65.18 million), confirmed by the relevant invoice and specifications. To verify these data, the customs office sent a request to the Polish customs authorities, where the cargo was also cleared.

Discovery in Polish registers

According to information from the Polish customs, a different invoice was used during the export clearance of the goods to Ukraine. The actual value of the cargo amounted to USD 2,024,000 (equivalent to UAH 84.13 million).

The difference in the declared value amounted to USD 456,000, or UAH 18,956,148. According to calculations by the «Pivdennyi-port» customs post, due to the undervaluation of the fertilizers, the state budget failed to receive UAH 4,928,598.48 in customs payments.

Court decision and referral of the case to the prosecutor’s office

Since the amount of the underpayment is significant, Judge O.V. Kryzhanovskyi concluded that the actions contain signs of criminal offenses — in particular, intentional tax evasion on an especially large scale (Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and the use of knowingly forged documents (Art. 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

In view of the fact that the court is not a pre-trial investigation body, the judge ruled:
· to close the proceedings in the administrative case against Stepova V.A. under Part 1 of Art. 483 of the Customs Code of Ukraine;
· to send the case materials to the head of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office to decide on the registration of criminal proceedings in accordance with Art. 214 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.