By KYIV. Nov 2 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Velta company, with assets for the extraction of titanium-bearing ores in Novomyrhorod (Kirovohrad region), claims bias on the part of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) of Ukraine in an investigation into the alleged underpayment of UAH 27 million in taxes.
According to the company’s statement on Tuesday, on October 27, 2022, BES conducted searches at the office and at the enterprise of Production-Commercial Company Velta LLC. The formal reason for the attack on the company was the alleged non-payment of taxes for UAH 27 million, which has not been established or confirmed, the company said.
At the same time, it is said that during a search at the mining and processing complex, BES employees took their own samples of raw materials in the quarry, and at the central office they seized technical documents for designing a plant for the manufacture of titanium products using Velta’s innovative patented technology. These actions, as noted in the statement, are not related to the officially stated reason for the investigation.
In addition, along with representatives of the BES, special police officers in full gear were present, who "were involved in the protection of public order." However, the company said that, in fact, the police exerted moral and psychological pressure on the persons present during the search, did not react in any way to illegal actions by the BES employees and did not prevent them from committing offenses.
According to the statement, Production-Commercial Company Velta LLC operates in the legal field and complies with all international standards for transparent business. That is why the company facilitates investigative actions and promptly responds to requests. "We are ready to defend our own right to work and refute information about tax violations," the company said.
The application is accompanied by a chronology of events, according to which, on November 12, 2021, on the fact of an unconfirmed overstatement of the tax credit for value added tax by the company in the period from 2020-2021, criminal proceedings against Production-Commercial Company Velta LLC were registered in the register. Contrary to the law, BES took up the pretrial investigation, although, in accordance with the Tax Code of Ukraine, only the State Tax Service (STS) has the right to conduct audits of taxpayers’ compliance with legal requirements. Thus, the fact of violation of the requirements of the tax legislation could be detected only by the State Tax Service.
Based on the results of an unlawful investigation, BES accused Velta of non-payment of taxes in the amount of UAH 27 million, despite the fact that the State Tax Service did not record these violations.
On July 15, BES employees received temporary access in court to the original documents of Production-Commercial Company Velta LLC and authorization to seize them, and on July 20, 2022, they made their first visit to the company.
But in parallel with the investigative actions of the BES, two events occurred that were the first signs of a possible illegal seizure of the titanium mining and processing complex of the Velta company. On the eve of the visit of the investigative bureau, an information campaign was held in the Russian media with the thesis that the Velta company is lobbying in the United States to stop the supply of Russian titanium to America. And also the company has data on massive inquiries regarding the work of Production-Commercial Company Velta LLC by a state-owned company, which has dozens of lawsuits due to the illegal seizure of private assets.
On October 27, 2022, BES representatives searched the enterprise and the central office of the Velta company in the city of Dnipro.
After that, CEO of Velta, Andriy Brodsky, addressed the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky about the searches that were taking place at the enterprise, which destabilized the work, emphasizing that both he and the company’s shareholders had always taken a pro-Ukrainian position.
