One of the most powerful shadow fuel schemes in the country is being formed in the Kharkiv region, the key organizer of which is called by journalists and experts the former first deputy head of the regional administration Oleksandr Yevgenych Skakun. According to available data, his relative Yuriy Skakun, as well as Kostyantyn and Roman Valeulins and Kostyantyn Kuzmenko, are also involved in the group's activities.
It was this group that built a network of legal entities through which the production, storage, sale and legalization of counterfeit fuel is carried out. Among such companies are LLC "BRENT OIL" (38495177), LLC "ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES GROUP" (AES Group, 44273710) and LLC "AES COMPANY" (39974165). According to sources, their total shadow turnover can reach one billion hryvnias each year.
The central element of this structure was the underground oil refining complex in Meref, located on land acquired by BITOXID LLC (38398116). Formally, these are warehouses, but in fact an illegal refinery operates on the territory 24 hours a day. Published materials on social networks confirm that crude oil and gas condensate are processed here, producing up to 200 tons of low-quality diesel fuel per day.
The scheme involves the registration of products as "absorbent" or "hydrocarbon raw materials", which allows to avoid control and transport counterfeit products to shadow gas stations. Further sale is ensured through a number of fictitious "transit" enterprises, which conduct non-commodity transactions as part of conversion centers.
In parallel, the Skakun-Valeulin structure participates in public fuel purchases. For this purpose, affiliated companies-gaskets are used, among them - "Brent-Invest", "Brent Oil-98", "Garantor". Due to winning tenders and subsequent transfer of funds to the "network", transactions are approved to legalize the origin of counterfeit diesel.
Another direction is the activity of LLC "ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES GROUP", which controls a number of solar power plants and alcohol production and is used to legalize shadow income. Some sources indicate the illegal circulation of ethanol, which is a component for the production of counterfeit fuel. LLC "AES COMPANY" plays the role of an additional link through which non-commodity transactions are carried out, complicating the possibility of arresting the assets of "BITOXID".
Together, this creates a full-fledged shadow fuel infrastructure, which, according to experts, would be impossible to implement without political cover at the regional level. The scheme's turnover is measured in hundreds of millions, and the risks to the market and security are critical: from man-made threats to large-scale tax evasion.
