The money laundered in this way was used for “salary” projects”, that is, the salaries of Ukrainians were paid with these funds.
The gambling business found a way to hide a turnover of about 10 billion UAH per month from the state, and it was helped by 8 private and one state bank. This was stated by the first deputy head of the Finance Committee, a people's deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
“Nine banks provided a miscoding service (assignment by the bank to a business entity of a category code that does not correspond to its actual activity – ed.) and the withdrawal of this money. To put it simply: the mechanism ensured that the money from the player went to the casino account, but like “for advertising services” or something like that,” the deputy explained.
“That is, it was a sufficiently open service for the market, when banks were perfectly aware , what they do and what damage they cause to the budget. And, of course, they took good commissions for it (3-3.5% for acquiring). Plus various cash withdrawal offers, USDT, etc., he added. of the state budget
According to Zheleznyak, what was especially striking about this scheme was that one state bank took part in providing such a service for the gambling business.
“I will not write the name, but it is consonant with the word gas (apparently the deputy is alluding to Ukrgazbank”, – ed.). Moreover, a lot of money was transferred through it. Once again, the bank is completely state-owned,” Zheleznyak emphasized.
The second moment, which, according to the deputy, is no less striking – one of the private banks that was exposed in this scheme, even after the law enforcement officers took up the case, and further actively provides such a service.
“According to the information available to us, it is UAH 250-300 million per day. I am not writing the name yet,” the deputy noted. the money laundered in this way was used for “salary” projects”, that is, the salaries of Ukrainians were paid with these funds.
“And here another participant of the scheme appears – the employer. Very often, the money from the players was used further – for the so-called “salary projects”, or simplified “salaries in an envelope”. That is, the banks twice helped to avoid taxation,” he noted.< /p>
According to him, retail trade networks, which have thousands of employees, and which use “salary projects” from these banks and their financial companies, participated in the scheme.
“What are “salary projects” from these banks in this case? It's simple, it's also the same as “salary in an envelope”, only in a non-cash version. The employee officially receives a part of the white salary from his official employer (usually the minimum), and everything else just comes to his card from another entity unknown to him. This is an unknown entity or some (financial) company or even an individual who replenishes his account in a casino. Well, of course, no one pays taxes – that's why everything exists,” said the deputy.
In turn, the trading network settled with the casino/bank with cash that could be taken abroad without any problems.
“For example, due to the export of “black” grain. The bank's commission is about 2.5%,” Zhelezniak claims.
According to the deputy, there is already a list of these employer companies.
“There, frankly, companies that seemed to have a normal reputation< /strong>. That is, it seemed until I saw the documents,” he noted.
“A brief summary, the volume is somewhere over 120 billion UAH, where everyone except the State wins several times: at the stage of paying taxes on casino profits, at the stage of paying taxes on player winnings, at the stage of paying taxes on salary payments. I'll just remind you that all this happens during the war,” the deputy added.
Read also: Gambling business did not live up to Zelenskyi's expectations
It will be recalled that in October 2022 the Tax Committee of the VRU supported draft law No. 8079, which proposed to stop granting unjustified benefits to organizers of gambling games, lotteries and betting.
On January 12, the Verkhovna Rada adopted draft law No. 8079 in the second reading.
In the explanatory note to the authors of the document note that from January 1 to August 31, 2022, business entities engaged in the organization and conduct of gambling, lotteries, bets (bookmaker bets, totalizer bets) and who later switched to a simplified taxation system paid a total of UAH 174 million corporate income tax, UAH 0.3 million value added tax and UAH 0.1 million land tax.
And since the transition to the simplified system, the same sub entities paid only UAH 13.4 million in a single contribution, continuing to carry out active activities.
Related video
On February 6, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed a law prohibiting the stay of gambling businesses on the simplified the taxation system.
