SBU and DBR officers exposed a corruption scheme at the Zhytomyr customs. The deal, which consisted in the illegal import of cars into Ukraine, caused more than 20 million hryvnia damage to the state budget.
The heads of one of the customs posts in the Zhytomyr region were involved in a corruption scheme. They helped to import foreign ambulances without paying the established customs duties.
As the SBU explained, in the fall of 2020, representatives of the capital importing company transported 26 medical aid vehicles to Ukraine and arranged their storage in the “customs warehouse” mode. This rule provides for the stay of the vehicle on the territory of customs logistics centers without paying taxes and fees for 1 year.
After this period, the car must be cleared by customs with the transfer of appropriate payments to the state budget or returned to the exporting country.
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However, the customs officers “agreed” with the merchants to make a fictitious re-export of ambulances in order to artificially extend the period of their free stay in Ukraine. At the same time, according to the documents, officials carried out the so-called “re-entry” across the border, but in fact, foreign vehicles remained in the customs warehouse of the Zhytomyr region, the SBU explained.
The SBU exposed the leadership of the Zhytomyr region Customs/Photo by SBU
During this time, merchants looked for buyers for imported goods and sold them after customs clearance at the “minimum” rate.
To do this, they entered an artificially low cost of foreign cars in customs declarations, and customs officers “did not notice” this discrepancy with the real amount .
What is the punishment for customs officers
The deputy head of the customs post and the head of the customs clearance department have already been informed of a suspicion under article 364 of abuse of power or official position . The court chose a preventive measure in the form of overnight house arrest for the defendants.
Pay attention! More than 20 ambulances with full medical equipment, which were seized, were transferred to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Earlier the head of the tax committee, Daniil Getmantsev, criticized the State Customs Service, noting that the body fulfilled the plan by only 56.9%. That is, the state received less than 227.5 billion hryvnia. People's Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak sees the reason for the “failure” in corruption schemes at customs. He said that billions are being stolen there.
