24.01.2025 Corruption Investigations

Заступник Директора Бюро економічної безпеки України Сергій Перхун приступив до виконання обовʼязків Директора БЕБ | Бюро економічної безпеки України

The Bureau of Economic Security has refused to investigate the crimes of oligarchs, illegal casinos, and smuggling of cigarettes, alcohol, and timber. We recently received such a letter from Vadym Pekelnyi, Head of the BES’s Document Management and Control Department.

“The BES has decided to stop considering the appeals received from the NGO “Non-Stop”.

The reasons are references to internal procedures on the powers of the BES Director or his acting director, which gives him such carte blanche. And also, a fictitious letter of 09.10, which allegedly referred to illegal actions against our organization and its head.

With this letter, the BES once again demonstrated its own involvement in corruption schemes and destroyed the authority and faith in the integrity of the acting head Serhiy Perkhun.

It also became clear that even here, Stolar’s money could overshadow the truth and stop any investigations. I wonder how it coincided that immediately after the re-registration of the NGO “Non-Stop” to an unknown person, we received a letter refusing to consider any materials from the BES?

But will this principled position of the Bureau stop us? Obviously not. We are not afraid of Stolar’s influence, nor of his associates Matios and Opanasenko, who represent the former. We have already duplicated inquiries, complaints and statements on behalf of an individual and will continue to do so until we are heard. We are confident that after processing a dozen letters, the BES office will definitely pay attention and inform the management of the content of such letters. And Perhun will finally begin to fulfill his job description, not the wishes of the “masters” who “order the music.”

In the meantime, we suggest paying attention to the key aspects of the BES’s activities in the context of war and why law enforcement officials are increasingly losing faith in the institution’s productivity and necessity.

Casinos and smuggling under the cover of the BES

First of all, Perkhun’s activities in the field of protection of illegal casinos with a pronounced Russian trace are noteworthy.

One example is the PariMatch bookmaker. The company uses a whole network of offshore structures associated with Russian citizens to conduct illegal business in Ukraine.

One of these companies is Ericius Investments Limited, which owns Parimatch domains in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Cyprus. Another part of this structure, Parimatch United Investments Limited, is also controlled by Russians.

Using controlled companies and banking institutions, the Parimatch holding conducted operations to transfer significant funds earned in Ukraine to Russia through offshore structures. The total amount of criminal financial transactions amounted to more than UAH 4.8 billion, which were received from the organization of gambling without a license.

In particular, through Pei-Pei LLC, Tsygir LLC, Dzega LLC, Kendwit LLC and others, the origin of the money is disguised, which is actually the result of criminal schemes. These funds get into circulation through controlled companies, and with the help of banking institutions, such as JSC “Ayboks Bank”, are transferred to countries where they can already be used without proper control by Ukrainian authorities.

The owners of Ayboks Bank are oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and Alyona Degryk-Shevtsova. And although the NBU revoked the license of the bank under their control back in 2023, shadow schemes still continue to operate, of course, not without the BES’s involvement.

For example, the ruling of the Lychakiv District Court of Lviv in case No. 463/11203/24 revealed that representatives of the BES, together with prosecutors from the Prosecutor General’s Office, who were in charge of the case, lobbied for a change of jurisdiction so that the trial would take place in the “right” court. Later, the investigating judge canceled the wanted list for Degryk-Shevtsova within the framework of the criminal proceedings under consideration, effectively allowing her to travel freely around the world.

Does this leave any questions about Perkhun’s involvement in protecting the interests of an illegal casino in Ukraine?

The BES has closed the proceedings on millions (if not billions) of dollars withdrawn from Ukraine through the WhiteBit crypto exchange, 51% of which is owned by Russian citizen Nikita Shentsev. We expect similar actions from the NABU and the SBI, which, although they have not changed the procedural status of the case, are not very active in their investigative actions.

The BES’s corrupt interests are not limited to gambling and money laundering. Numerous smuggling investigations are also being stopped under the “cover” of the agency headed by Perhun.

For example, the BES has not yet shown any reaction to our materials on smugglers Kozlovsky (Vynnykivska Tobacco Factory), Kaufman (Tedis Ukraine) and the Monakivtsi organized crime group (Ukrainian Tobacco Production). But this was already clear, because smuggling hides the interest of Hetmantsev, who controls absolutely all aspects of the illegal business.

And as long as Perkhun and his team try to “close” the cases, disrupt any attempts to investigate and continue their corrupt activities, we will continue to appeal and demand the resignation of everyone who works against the people.

If Perhun thinks that he will be able to block this information, he is very much mistaken. We will spread the truth and ensure that these cases do not remain in the shadows.

Did you witness a crime?

Let us know about it. We will help protect the violated rights!

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