The Economic Security Bureau is conducting pre-trial investigations into the operation of anonymous Telegram channels whose owners use networks of sole traders to evade paying tax on advertising revenue.
Deputy Head of the Economic Security Bureau Pavlo Budzyhan said this at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada’s Temporary Investigative Commission, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
Detectives have already identified the circle of individuals involved and documented the financial schemes. The agency is working with payment systems, checking bank accounts, tracking transactions via crypto wallets and examining financial operations, taking into account possible political links. The bureau also noted that those involved try to close their sole trader registrations or re-register them in the names of front persons immediately after active investigative actions begin.
TIC Chair Yaroslav Zhelezniak presented the results of monitoring non-public Telegram channels with multi-million turnovers. According to the commission, the cost of a single advertising post there ranges from 60,000 hryvnias to $1,800 and above. To avoid breaching tax thresholds, owners split profits among sole traders in the second and third tax groups, registered in the names of relatives or close associates, and change them regularly.
In addition to using crypto payments to conceal real income, anonymous channels systematically advertise illegal online casinos and publish vacancies for “call centres”. The commission has already passed the collected materials to law enforcement and the tax service.