A scheme for smuggling Russian oil products to Ukraine has been uncovered
A scheme for smuggling petroleum products from Russia to Ukraine has become known, which could be related to news about searches in the apartment of businessman Mikhail Gutseriev and in the offices of his Safmar group of companies.
Izvestia writes about this, citing its sources in law enforcement agencies.
The publication’s interlocutor said that a criminal case into the smuggling of petroleum products to Ukraine was opened in November by the Transport Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central Federal District. The basis was information collected by operatives of the economic security service of the FSB and the Main Directorate of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption (GUEBiPK) of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
At the same time, it is indicated that there are no specific defendants in the case yet.
“According to the investigation, unidentified persons developed the following scheme: oil products were loaded into a tanker in the port of Novorossiysk, according to documents they were sent to Turkey and Bulgaria. But in fact, the tankers were “lost” along the way and appeared in Odessa. According to law enforcement agencies, from 2017 to 2018, 130 thousand tons of petroleum products: diesel, gasoline, fuel oil could have been illegally transported to Ukraine through Gutseriev’s companies. The damage from criminal activity is estimated at 2 billion rubles,” the newspaper writes.
Its source noted: it is assumed that the scheme was implemented through the ForteInvest company, so law enforcement agencies can make claims against Said Gutseriev.
True, another Izvestia source in a structure associated with the oil market said that, judging by the investigation materials, we are talking about a small volume of oil products - three or four medium-tonnage tankers. The violation was discovered several months ago. Allegedly, the culprit has already been found (an employee of one of Mikhail Gutseriev’s companies), who has now already been fired.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs did not provide an immediate comment when asked by journalists about searches in the offices of the companies of the industrial and financial group Safmar and the apartments of their managers. The Safmar group denied the initiation of a criminal case.
Leading expert of the Union of Oil and Gas Industrialists of Russia Rustam Tankaev confirmed to the newspaper that the problem of smuggling oil products from Russia to Ukraine exists, but such schemes are very difficult to track.
“Smuggling is highly developed, there are deliveries by road, rail, and water. It is possible to track the route of tankers, but it is quite difficult. There is a certain scheme for multiple resale of cargo along the route. It leaves the port with one owner, and at its destination it may already have another,” Tankaev noted.
Read also: Ukrainian tanks are refueled with Russian fuel – scandal on the air of “Russia-1”.
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