The smuggling of cigarettes from Ukraine to the European Union and the production of illegal products without excise stamps are alarming facts that Ukraine has been associated with for many years. Despite the martial law and increased control, this business continues to flourish without slowing down. Let's consider the problems, scope and possible solutions to this situation.
No matter how much the mass media mention the names of Helzin, Karfik, Alperin and other semi-criminal elements who get rich on the production of counterfeit tobacco products, the visas are still there. But since the beginning of the year, the BEB and the DBR gradually began to intensify their work to stop shady schemes in this area. What is the value of only 24 simultaneous searches conducted in mid-May in premises associated with "tobacco barons".
On May 15, the chairman of the Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, Danylo Hetmantsev, paid tribute to the detectives of the Bureau of Economic Security for their work in detecting the illegal production of cigarettes and their supply to the countries of the European Union. The reason was massive searches at tobacco factories and warehouses of the largest domestic tobacco producers, regarding which there is information about their illegal activities. Hetmantsev veiledly named two of these manufacturers. In one of the cases, we are talking about "Tabako Dim", which changed its name to LLC "Local Production Group" in March 2024. He is associated with businessman Yuriy Karfik, who is known in the media as a "converter".
As for other searches, they took place at a factory in Ternopil, at the Odesa factory of under-sanctioned smuggler Vadym Alperin, and at a factory in the village of Goshcha, Rivne region, whose activities are overseen by a person involved in the "Monaco Battalion" investigation - former football player and owner of the Pchyolka chain of stores, Vladyslav Gelzin.
According to the Kantar Ukraine center, the share of illegal tobacco products on the market reached a record high of 25.7%. At the same time, counterfeit products have two types of "promotion to the market" - forgery of an excise stamp and a formal Duty Free mark. The factory in Gosh, officially called LLC "Ukrainian Tobacco Production", specializes in counterfeiting excise taxes. If out of 100% of counterfeit cigarettes, 26% are sold with illegal excise stamps, then as much as 15% of them come from the Gelzin factory. At least, such data is published by Kantar Ukraine.
The May searches are not the only ones that took place this year at the factory in Gosh. Detectives of the Economic Security Bureau visited there on April 1. In addition to illegal tobacco, cigarette boxes with fake excise stamps and printing, several mobile lines for the production of tobacco products were also discovered. Helzin's factory has long been called "nomadic", because in fact it is only partially located in the Rivne region. Some of its unofficial branches are constantly moving from place to place in order not to fall under the crosshairs of law enforcement officers.
Another know-how of the tobacco tycoons is voicing information about shelling, which allegedly affects production facilities. On March 25, a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy was held. At it, representatives of the tax office stated that the Helzin tobacco factory in Gosh is allegedly periodically hit by drones that destroy raw materials for the production of cigarettes. At least this is what Ukrainian Tobacco Production LLC reports to the tax authorities. With this, they allegedly explain that there may be discrepancies in the financial statements between purchases and production.
In this context, it is also worth reminding that, according to the results of 2022, the Gelzin factory entered the so-called TOP of illegal cigarette manufacturers. Information about this was announced at the meeting of the Temporary Investigative Commission on the illegal circulation of tobacco products on April 25, 2023. At the same time, during this period, the factory purchased 0 excise stamps.
That is, raw materials are destroyed by the aggressor, excise taxes are not purchased, but production is in full swing, which is confirmed by constant searches by the Security Service.
In February of this year, there was another event related to the work of Vladislav Helzin's illegal cigarette factory. Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation, together with the State Border Service and the State Customs Service, exposed an illegal cigarette smuggling scheme from Ukraine to Romania, which had been operating since July 2023. "Schemes" transported large batches of tobacco products to the EU without excise stamps in fuel tanks.
Thus, in early February, law enforcement officers discovered two trucks in which counterfeit cigarettes were transported. In the first, they found 130 boxes, the value of products in which reaches 4.5 million hryvnias. In the second - 335 boxes worth 12 million hryvnias. The law enforcement officers reported that the cargo is related to the factory of converter Yuriy Karfik, who manages the enterprise in Kyiv. At the same time, DBR officials add that, according to operational information, law enforcement officers may appear in the scheme. However, the mass media learned that among these 465 boxes of "burnt" cigarettes there was also a batch manufactured at the Helzin factory in Gosh.
Later, the BEB also reported that two more abandoned trucks with illegal cigarettes were found. One is in Solotvino, Transcarpathian region, the other is in the village of Zazimya in Kyiv region. Some of their products could also be manufactured at the production facilities of Vladyslav Helzin's Ukrainian Tobacco Production LLC.
In the spring of 2023, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal instructed to intensify the fight against the illegal circulation of excise goods, including tobacco products. As part of this work, an Interdepartmental Working Group was created from representatives of the State Security Service, the Tax Service, the Customs Service, the Audit Service and other law enforcement agencies. According to the information of this working group, over the past six months (as of May 2024, - Ed.), law enforcement officers seized almost 14.4 million packs of cigarettes, from which more than 706 million hryvnias of taxes did not go to the budget.
This entire flow of counterfeit goods is actually distributed among five businessmen, whose names are well known, but whom the law enforcement officers cannot get hold of in any way. Therefore, while all kinds of interdepartmental groups intensify the fight against the illegal circulation of tobacco products, people like Vladyslav Gelzin calmly drive through the streets of Monaco in a luxury Ferrari.
