Court at ESB's request seizes seven aircraft of airline linked to oligarch
Detectives of the Main Unit of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine (ESB) by order of an investigating judge seized three Boeing 737-800 aircraft, one Boeing 737-900 and three Embraer 190 aircraft of an airline linked to a Ukrainian oligarch with an estimated value of $40 million, the ESB said in a release on Tuesday.
According to the report, the detectives suspected the former head and chief accountant of the airline of deliberately evading large amounts of taxes when concluding several leasing agreements for these aircraft with a Cypriot company.
It is noted that the leasing fee to a non-resident company during 2017-2022 exceeded UAH 3.4 billion, and using the Convention between Ukraine and Cyprus on the avoidance of double taxation when paying income, the former management of the Ukrainian company applied a preferential rate of 0% instead of 10%.
"However, ESB detectives established that the application of such a preferential rate did not comply with the terms of the concluded contracts and the actual circumstances of the operation of the aircraft. Thus, the air carrier evaded paying more than UAH 344 million in taxes to the state budget," the release notes.
The company's name is missing, but it is likely that it is the airline Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), affiliated with Ihor Kolomoisky, because in the State Register of Civil Aircraft, all Embraer 190 aircraft are registered under UIA. However, according to the register, their owners are two Irish, American, Portuguese, and Latvian (AS PrivatBank) companies.
According to the release, the pretrial investigation is ongoing, the full range of persons involved in illegal activities is being established. Operational support is provided by employees of the Security Service of Ukraine, and procedural management is provided by prosecutors of the Prosecutor General's Office.