Instagram blogger Oleksandr Slobozhenko was arrested in absentia in the case of non-payment of UAH 200 million in taxes. He is on the wanted list. This was reported by the Prosecutor General’s Office, Komersant ukrainskyi
reports
On 16 August, Slobozhenko was served with a notice of suspicion of intentional tax evasion and legalisation of the proceeds of crime. According to the investigation, the blogger legalised some of the money by purchasing luxury real estate and premium cars.
“At the request of prosecutors from the Prosecutor General’s Office, the court imposed a custodial measure on the well-known Kyiv blogger. He is currently wanted,” the statement said.
Slobozhenko’s detained accomplice was taken into custody in the courtroom and will be released on bail of UAH 45 million 420 thousand.
As has learned from its own sources, this is Oleksandr Slobozhenko. His 8 vehicles, including elite super/sport cars, apartments and real estate in the capital, were seized.
According to the investigation, he involved several people among his acquaintances and those with special knowledge in the field of information technology in his activities to obtain illegal profits from online work.
In 2020, the suspect founded and organised the activities of a commercial entity, created a web resource and subsequently registered a trademark.
The company was engaged in Internet traffic arbitrage (affiliate marketing) – advertising on the Internet and social media of goods and services of third parties, mainly from the gambling (online casino and gambling market), dating (online dating services), betting (online betting market, bookmakers), nutra (online market for health and beauty products), etc.
The founder of the company was in charge of the general management of the commercial structure, and the trustee was in charge of accounting for the funds received, paying salaries to employees, etc.
In order to conceal income and evade taxes and fees, the company was not registered as a legal entity and was not registered as a taxpayer with the State Tax Service of Ukraine, and no employment contracts were concluded with employees, the BES alleges.
In addition, the head of the company allegedly introduced a mechanism for obtaining his own income, including from the provision of services, by transferring funds into cryptocurrency using payment systems and electronic wallets registered for him and his trustees, with their subsequent exchange for cash received at currency exchange offices.
The suspect’s proxies, according to the investigation, registered cryptocurrency wallets using their personal data and documents to which they received cryptocurrency for traffic arbitrage services provided by the company. The virtual assets were transferred to the company’s CEO’s e-wallets and exchanged for US dollars.
“Thus, the company’s CEO, with the assistance of the trustees, received income equivalent to more than UAH 1 billion at the official NBU exchange rate at the time. They were not reflected in the declarations of property and income for 2020-2023, and no taxes were paid on them. Such actions resulted in the actual non-receipt of more than UAH 213 million in taxes to the state budget,”
– the BES reported.
The suspect then legalised the proceeds of crime. In particular, he purchased a number of real estate objects and luxury vehicles.
He was served a notice of suspicion of committing a criminal offence under Part 3 of Article 212 and Part 1 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The maximum penalty under these articles is 6 years in prison.