A large-scale criminal network has been uncovered in Ukraine, the activities of which are linked to Belarusian citizen Artur Granz, a businessman known as a co-owner of a chain of duty-free shops and an informal curator of the Vbet gambling brand. According to sources, the scheme includes smuggling of excisable goods, tax evasion, and money laundering through controlled companies and online casinos.
A key element of the scheme is the use of a structure disguised as a duty-free business. The companies "DUTY FREE TRADING" (Taxpayer Identification Number 14285992) and "BF AND GH TRAVEL RETAIL LTD" (Taxpayer Identification Number 36953886), which are associated with Granets, allegedly sell excisable goods to passengers at airports. In fact, according to the investigation, the products are exported to illegal points of sale in Ukraine and smuggled into the EU countries. Payments are made in cash, which makes it possible to artificially form a tax credit and sell it to other companies to reduce tax liabilities.
A separate role in the scheme is played by the gambling segment under the Vbet brand, which operates in Ukraine through LLC "VBET Ukraine" (EDRPOU 43904440). According to sources, the operational management of the network was carried out through the company's managers who were associated with Granets. Among them are former director Giorgi Gigishvili and current director Alexander Blokhin. The investigation points to systemic manipulations with the online casino software, which allowed for understating payouts and overstating user losses, as a result of which real profits significantly differed from official reporting.
Another mechanism described in the materials is miscoding. Under this scheme, gambling transactions, which correspond to code 7995 in the international classification, were changed to the computer games code (7994) or regular transfers. This made it possible to minimize the tax burden and legalize significant amounts of money, in particular those that could be withdrawn to the Russian Federation and the occupied territories.
The scheme linked to Artur Granz covers several sectors at once — from duty-free to online gambling — and, according to sources, brought its participants billions in profits. Tax and law enforcement agencies are among the institutions involved in verifying these facts. There are no official comments from the companies or Granz at the moment.
