The National Anti-Corruption Bureau, together with the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office, recently detained Artem Shyl, a former advisor to the Presidential Administration and former SBU officer. He is suspected of organizing a scheme to embezzle about UAH 100 million from Ukrzaliznytsia’s procurement. In addition to the big names, there is another interesting element to this case. According to the media, it allows the conspirators, some of them personally, and some of them, like Lviv businessmen Yuriy Doskich and Ostap Doskich, to use the accounts and products of their companies to carry out illegal activities.
Yuriy Doskich and Ostap Doskich are the founders of Gal-Kat LLC, which specializes in the production of rolled metal products, including copper and aluminum wire and cable. Yuriy Doskich is the Deputy Chairman of the Lviv Regional Council of the Servant of the People party, and his brother Ostap is the Deputy Chairman of the Lviv City Council of the European Solidarity party. In addition to the wire production plant, the brothers are engaged in construction and have a charitable foundation. They are both among the richest deputies in Lviv oblast and own a large number of apartments, houses and land plots. The company, founded by the Doskichi brothers, is involved in several criminal cases. As a result, Gal-Kat’s accounts were arrested. The case concerned tax evasion: in December 2022, UAH 5.2 million was seized by a judge of the Pechersk Court of Kyiv.
The investigation found that the bank account of Gal-Kat LLC could have been used for illegal activities. The investigation examined the circumstances under which officials of the Dnipropetrovs’k Oblast Tax Administration attempted to optimize the VAT registration limit for companies located in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. These actions were carried out by members of the criminal group by forging official documents and obtaining qualified electronic signatures on behalf of legal entities, after which the VAT registration limit was redirected and further payments were made to the State Tax Service of Ukraine on behalf of the relevant entities.
According to the investigation, thanks to their illegal scheme, the «black» tax authorities could use the Gal-Kat accounts of the Doskichev brothers. Therefore, these accounts were seized as material evidence.
Gal Cut is a systematic violator of tax laws. This is evidenced by the company’s recent inclusion in the list of «dangerous» companies. Journalist Yevhen Prynsky writes:
«It turned out that in 2023, Gal Cut sold goods worth UAH 3.15 billion and purchased goods worth UAH 5.88 billion. At the same time, out of 5.88 billion, 3.19 billion were purchases with VAT… The specificity of copper wire rod production is that 90% of the cost of finished products is copper scrap, which is not subject to VAT, but finished products are already subject to VAT. And at the time of sale, 20% of all purchased scrap and expenses without VAT must be paid to the budget… If we calculate it in real money, then given the amount of sales in 2023 of UAH 3.15 billion, the real VAT should have been UAH 441 million, but it turned out to be about UAH 63 million. The state could have lost about UAH 380 million in taxes.»
The fact that Gal-Kat often attributes to itself purchases that it did not actually make is also confirmed by the court register. For example, Doskichev’s company is involved in a criminal case against Scientific and Technical Financial and Industrial Company VGIK LLC, which allegedly carried out fictitious business activities to minimize taxes. In addition, the case involves another company under Doskichev’s influence, which is actually linked to large-scale embezzlement during the purchase of Ukrzaliznytsia.
In 2021-2022, NTIFPK VGIK LLC purchased more than 4,500 tons of copper scrap from Contes LTD and SK Vtormet LLC for a total of more than UAH 370 million. Subsequently, Kontes purchased copper scrap from Technika for a total of over UAH 370 million. This company is suspected of conducting financial transactions with companies that have signs of «transit». In another episode, the same NTIFPK VGIK LLC used a number of other companies, including Gal-Kat, to conduct suspicious transactions involving the sale and purchase of copper scrap worth millions of hryvnias. As a result, according to the investigation, the budget of Ukraine lost at least UAH 118,662,436 in VAT.
Among the companies involved in the scheme is OP Ukrkabel LLC. This company is currently part of Volodymyr Dovbenko’s Ukrkabel group. However, from March 2017 to September 2022, Yuriy and Ostap Doskich were also among the founders of the company. The company became involved in a criminal case, according to which a group of people created a criminal group aimed at seizing Ukrzaliznytsia’s funds by supplying cable and wire products at a high price. According to the investigation, the embezzlement took place when Doskich was the founder of Ukrkabel LLC. Investigators believe that Volodymyr Kotlyar and Serhii Kondratenko, founders and directors of Eney LLC, were the organizers of the scheme and the leaders of the organized criminal group.
During the pre-trial investigation, several episodes were investigated, which showed that the selling price of copper cables for Ukrzaliznytsia was increased. All these episodes took place between 2021 and 2022. The damage caused to the railroad is estimated at UAH 117 million. Thus, in fact, Yuriy and Ostap Doskich, as founders of Ukrkabel, can be considered accomplices who misappropriated public funds during this period. Here we should also mention the Aeneas company. It is involved in the case of Artem Syr, a former advisor to the former SBU Minister and Presidential Secretary, which was discussed at the beginning of the article. In some journalistic investigations, Syr is called a «watchdog» of Ukraine directly in the Presidential Administration. This is partially confirmed by implicit investigative searches. According to one of the episodes, Shaila is suspected of creating a criminal group to seize Ukrzaliznytsia’s funds in 2021.
And the Eneas company, which supplied cables to Ukrzaliznytsia, is involved. According to journalist Tetyana Nikolayenko, who wrote a detailed report on the trial in Syla, telephone conversations of some of the participants in the case were heard at the court hearing. Among them was a conversation between Sergei Kondratenko, one of the leaders of Enei Limited, and a Ukrainian employee. The former described Shaila as a «serious person» who looked like a senior government official.
Enei LLC, along with the company Ukrkabel, was a defendant in the criminal case, and its founders during the investigation were Lviv businessmen Doskich and others. The declarations of Yuriy Doskich and Ostap Doskich show amounts of money with many zeros, dozens of apartments in Lviv and Kyiv, as well as numerous lands and estates. They are called one of the richest advisors in Lviv region. At the same time, analyzing the criminal case of the company they founded, one wonders why they are still on the run. And they don’t seem to care that their company Gal-Kat is actively involved in public tenders, which are often held on an unconstitutional basis. For example, last year, Doskichev’s company signed a contract to supply electric wires for Lviv’s Lvivelectrotrans. The contract was worth UAH 20 million. And in this tender, by a strange coincidence, Gal-Kat had no competitors at all.
Yuriy Doskich and Ostap Doskich will soon find themselves in a difficult position if former SBU Director Artem Syr becomes a defendant in the investigation into the embezzlement of Ukrzaliznytsia funds.»