Statement from Argentem Creek Partners & Innovatus Capital Partners on the Investigation into Tax Evasion and Black Market Exports at Olimpex Terminals
News release
by
Argentem Creek Partners
New York, US
|
January 13, 2025 05:39 AM Eastern Standard Time
“The Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BES) is conducting searches, at the Olimpex terminal in the Port of Odesa, specifically into Attollo Granum LLC of Sunolta Group (an entity formally owned by Serhii Fedorov and Tetyana Kovalenko), as part of an investigation into widespread tax evasion and the illegal export of black-market goods linked to the sanctioned smuggler, Vadym Alperin.
“BES appear to have discovered that Attollo Granum, in illegally operating the Olimpex terminal, has evaded UAH 30 million in taxes in the 2023-2024 tax year alone by deliberately understating the tax base, transferring unaccounted profits to international bank accounts and then transferring them back into Ukraine via illegal cash dispensing points. The premises being searched by BES were illegally stripped out of Olimpex Coupe International LLC by Sergiy Groza and Volodymyr Naumenko through Pivdenniy Bank to avoid repaying their creditors.
“A Ukrainian court ruled in June 2024 that the operations of the entities under investigation are under the common control of Groza and Naumenko, who in October 2024 were sentenced to 21 months in prison by the English High Court for being in contempt of court.
“The links between Groza and Naumenko and sanctioned entities associated with Vadym Alperin were established by an earlier BES investigation into operations at the Olimpex terminal in 2024. Attollo Granum, which while formally owned by Sunolta, has been established by BES as a front for operations of Groza and Naumenko. It has been discovered that Attollo Granum offered the facilities in the Port of Odesa to the Alperin-linked sanctioned entity, Agiros LLC, for the storage, transshipment, and export of ‘black’ grain.
“As creditors of GNT Group and the Olimpex terminal, we remain extremely concerned about these continued illicit activities, which appear to be coordinated by Groza, Naumenko and their associates, including the Russian citizen, Mikhail Ipatov and Sunolta, among others. We welcome the work of BES to support the rule of law in uncovering this illegal activity which is against the interests of the people of Ukraine.”
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