Austrian Company Exposed Over Supplying Strategic Products To Russia

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) Law enforcers have exposed the director and founder of an Austrian-based company in supplying strategic products to Russia worth UAH 90 million.

This was reported by the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office , Ukrinform saw.

"The director and founder of an Austrian company controlled by a sanctioned Russian oligarch have been charged. They are suspected of financing actions committed with the aim of forcibly altering the borders of the territory and state border of Ukraine, tax evasion, and legalization of property obtained by criminal means. As part of international cooperation, paperwork containing formal charges has been sent to the Republic of Austria," the report says.

According to the inquiry, the suspects are citizens of Ukraine who were part of an organized criminal group that masterminded the supply of strategic products from a Ukrainian mining and processing plant to Russian enterprises.

The group was set up by a Russian oligarch, the ultimate beneficiary of a Russian corporation, one of the world's largest titanium producers, which in turn is part of the Russian state corporation Rostec. Since 2012, he has owned a Ukrainian mining and processing plant, which extracted strategic titanium-containing raw materials in Dnipropetrovsk region, used in the manufacture of a wide range of goods for both military and dual use.

As law enforcement learned, from January 2020 to December 2021, an organized criminal group secretly supplied products from a Ukrainian plant they controlled to Russian enterprises for almost UAH 90 million via an Austrian company. The recipient companies are directly involved in arms production for the Russian Ministry of Defense, and are also involved in covering the needs of the aggressor state's defense-industrial complex and creating strategic reserves.

Under contracts, titanium-containing concentrates were supplied to a company incorporated in Austria, although in fact they were immediately shipped to Russian enterprise at dumped prices.

The prosecutor's office recalled that earlier, within the framework of criminal proceedings, charges were pressed against a Russian oligarch, as well as another participant in the criminal group, former director of a Ukraine-based mining and processing plant.

The seizure of corporate rights and the entire property complex, vehicles, as well as funds in the company's bank accounts was also secured.

Through the efforts of the Prosecutor General's Office, the Bureau of Economic Security, and the Ministry of Justice, by the decision of the Appellate Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court, the said property and assets were seized as state revenue. At present, the plant is owned by the government of Ukraine.

It should be noted that the decisions of the National Security and Defense Council, put into effect by decrees of President Zelensky, imposed a number of personal special economic sanctions on the Russian oligarch and affiliated entities.

Earlier, media reported that Russian oligarch Mikhail Shelkov set up a criminal organization, which included the former director of Demurinsky Mining and Processing Plant LLC, the beneficiary, and the director of the Austrian-based company.

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