Director of Agroenergoinvest company Victor Cherednichenko, who was a suspect in criminal proceedings opened by the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB), avoided criminal liability. The decision was made by the Solomyan District Court after the company paid a significant compensation to the state budget.
The Agroenergoinvest company, which is engaged in logistics and has a hub in Chopa (Transcarpathia region) for the transportation of goods from the Ukrainian track to the European track, found itself at the center of the investigation due to suspicions of tax evasion. In 2022, the company, which earned tens of millions of hryvnias, came under the close attention of the State Security Service and the Security Service of Ukraine, which were conducting an inspection of the activities within the so-called "grain corridor".
The investigation was initiated in June 2024, when it became known that Victor Cherednichenko, the commercial director of Agroenergoinvest and the new owner of the company after the departure of his granddaughter Anastasia Danilova, did not include soybeans received free of charge in his income and did not pay tax to the state budget for profit in the amount of 44.26 million hryvnias. Suspicions were raised against him in March 2024, and already in June the company paid compensation in the amount of 11.34 million hryvnias.
This amount was aimed at compensating tax losses, which enabled Cherednichenko to avoid criminal liability. As a result, the court decided to close the case and release from criminal liability. As noted in the documents, the BEB, although it found the violation, still took into account the compensation paid by the company.
Overall, this case highlights the complexity of business investigations involving large companies, where financial shenanigans are often disguised as normal business activities. However, payment of compensation on time made it possible to avoid serious consequences for the person involved in the case.
