Despite being embroiled in numerous investigations involving tax fraud, environmental crimes, and alleged collaboration with Russian occupation authorities, SMK Group and its beneficial owner, Denys Paramonov, continue to boost profits and win government contracts. This is according to court records and a recent investigation by journalists at StopCor.
According to law enforcement agencies, companies within the group are implicated in a series of large-scale violations. Under court case No. 761/46245/24, investigators are probing tax evasion and ghost transactions involving shell companies with the help of a «shadow accountant.»
Additionally, case No. 759/4658/26 details the alleged embezzlement of funds designated for school and sanatorium children’s meals. Uncovered violations include replacing quality products with sub-standard alternatives and laundering illicit proceeds through the purchase of luxury vehicles. Key entities involved include Kyiv Meat Processing Plant and the «Chayka» children’s health resort.
Other ongoing proceedings concern damage to infrastructure and the environment:
Heritage Destruction: In Fastiv, authorities recorded the unauthorized demolition of a 19th-century bakery building designated as a cultural heritage site (case No. 381/2587/26). Saltivskyi Meat Processing Plant LLC was reportedly involved in the work.
Environmental Damage: Group subsidiaries—Bohodukhiv Meat Processing Plant and the «Agrofirma Svitanok» pig farm—are suspected of systematically dumping waste into the Merlo River and discharging toxic waste into forest belts, far exceeding legal limits for ammonium and phosphates.
Investigators are also examining transit-conversion networks, underground workshops producing counterfeit alcohol and tobacco products, and illegal land grabs. Meanwhile, the Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) is looking into the unauthorized acquisition of shares in other meat processing entities.
Investigators are paying special attention to the conglomerate’s operations in temporarily occupied territories. Following the formal re-registration of Berdyansk-based assets under third parties, serious questions have emerged regarding tax payments made to the Russian state budget and whether the original Ukrainian owner retains actual control.
«The story of the Berdyansk enterprises did not end with the occupation. The re-registration of business assets and tax payments to the aggressor state raise critical questions about the ultimate owner’s true accountability,» StopCor journalists emphasize.
Despite the trail of criminal cases and allegations of collaborationism, SMK Group continues to expand its retail chain, supply goods to military units and educational institutions, and post record financial gains.
Whether law enforcement will successfully prove the group’s leadership guilty in court remains an open question.