Ukrainian Intelligence: LPR separatists laundered more than $300,000 through Ukrainian banks
The State Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) found accounts from the criminal group in some Ukrainian banks
Members of the so-called Luhansk People's Republic fraudulently laundered at least 8 million Ukrainian Hryvnia ($322,000) through financial institutions. The SSU stopped activities by this currency conversion center which provided various tax services, as reported by the SSU press-service.
“The ‘Converter’ (Conversion Center) was organized by four residents of the Luhansk and Kyiv regions who were involved in illegal businesses with more than a dozen perpetrators. The conversion center provided such services as minimizing tax obligations, artificial formation of tax credit and converting funds into cash. Members of Security Forces found that there were business entities from the temporarily occupied territories among the clients of ‘Converter.’ They did not pass re-registration in accordance with the Ukrainian legislation but had accounts in Ukrainian banks,” the statement read.
Separatists withdrew cash and transferred it to the so-called LPR, where they partly funded illegal armed groups.
SSU employees searched the offices of the conversion center and criminals’ homes in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, where they found and seized accounting records, tax book-keepings, seals and stamps from fictitious firms. More than 130 accounts in four banks were blocked. Criminal proceedings have been initiated under the part 3 art. 258-5 (Financing terrorism) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Earlier, the SSU detained the creator of the anti-Ukrainian website who, on request from Russia, developed the resource and filled it with propaganda materials.