The Chernihiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office has launched a large-scale criminal investigation into massive tax evasion involving one of the region’s prominent agricultural facilities, Nizhyn Fat Plant JSC. According to law enforcement, the oil extraction plant purchased agricultural raw materials using off-the-books cash transactions while filing fraudulent accounting records through shell companies. The suspicious operations totaled 433 million UAH, resulting in an estimated 78 million UAH in unpaid corporate income taxes.
Investigators reveal that throughout 2024–2025, the plant purchased sunflower seeds and meal directly from local farmers using cash without official accounting. To legitimize these volumes in tax returns and generate fictitious tax credits, the enterprise covered the transactions using fraudulent paperwork from five shell entities:
Kvanta Kosmo LLC (EDRPOU 44939410);
Dinex UA LLC (EDRPOU 43430732);
Kleints LLC (EDRPOU 45520508);
Agroplus Company LLC (EDRPOU 45475953);
Udachna Fira LLC (EDRPOU 45634491).
Financial analysis showed that these counterparties existed solely on paper. None possessed registered employees, production facilities, storage, or transport capabilities necessary for agricultural trade. While they regularly submitted tax returns, no real physical flow of goods ever took place.
«According to case files, the counterparties lacked staff, facilities, vehicles, and real purchases of agricultural crops. Reports were filed, but there was no actual trace of physical goods.»
Analytical data from the State Tax Service in Chernihiv Region highlighted a specific money-laundering funnel. Between April 22 and July 10, 2024, Nizhyn Fat Plant transferred 161 million UAH to Kvanta Kosmo under the guise of buying sunflower products. The funds were immediately routed further to four transit companies disguised as payments for used vehicles and auto parts—businesses completely unrelated to the agricultural market.
The final accumulation hub was Varni Mol LLC, which absorbed 442 million UAH through phantom transactions. These funds were subsequently converted and wired out of Ukraine, sending roughly €9.8 million to non-resident foreign accounts.
To cover its tracks, Kvanta Kosmo LLC underwent a typical cover-up procedure: changing its name in official registries to Trash-Opt Company LLC, re-registering its address to Kharkiv, and altering its primary line of business to wholesale trade of waste and scrap metal.
Located at 2 Prylutskya Street in Nizhyn, the plant underwent corporate restructuring in 2026, transitioning from a Public Joint-Stock Company (JSC) to a Limited Liability Company (LLC) under the same registration code (00373942). The enterprise is 100% owned by Mykhailo Honcharenko, managed by director Yevhenii Vasylchenko, and maintains its main executive offices on Lavrska Street in Kyiv.
This is not the plant’s first encounter with tax authorities: in 2025, the facility was involved in court litigation challenging tax assessments concerning other questionable counterparties. The management of Nizhyn Fat Plant has not yet released an official public statement regarding the latest criminal allegations.
Pre-trial proceedings are ongoing under Criminal Proceeding No. 42025270000000093, initiated on September 29, 2025, under Part 3, Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (large-scale tax evasion).