The general director of Tedis Ukraine Taras Korniyachenko, his deputy and the chief accountant were charged in the criminal proceedings, which were brought to court by the Bureau of Economic Security and the Prosecutor General's Office. This information was reported on the websites of the relevant departments.
Although the name of the company was not specified in the official notification, it is indicated that it is the largest distributor of tobacco products in Ukraine, which is a direct appeal to Tedis Ukraine. General Director Korniachenko was suspected in January 2023 in the case of tax evasion.
In November 2023, the top managers of Tedis Ukraine were separated into separate criminal proceedings on charges of tax evasion (Part 3, Article 212 of the Criminal Code) and money laundering (Part 3, Article 209 of the Criminal Code).
The investigation believes that during 2019 until the first half of 2021, "Tedis Ukraine" documented the sale of tobacco products to the address of four fictitious enterprises. In fact, no real sale took place. After that, these businesses, which showed signs of fictitiousness, included in their tax returns the false sales of other goods, such as meat products and fuel.
As a result of such actions, according to the investigation, losses in the amount of more than UAH 300 million were caused to the state, and more than UAH 1.3 billion of criminally obtained funds were legalized.
The company rejects the charges, claiming that its business operations were legal, and that the investigation has no evidence of any violation of the law by Tedis Ukraine.
It should be noted that "Tedis Ukraine" is not only the largest distributor of tobacco products in Ukraine, but also one of the largest companies in the country. According to the Forbes rating for 2023, it ranks 12th with an income of UAH 65 billion, which exceeds the income of companies such as Nova Poshta, Roshen and Rozetka combined. The main owner of the company is Boris Kaufman.
