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The head of the Volyn company “Volpas” received over 32 million UAH in fines for forged EUR certificates.1 during the import of hundreds of cars
The Liuboml District Court of the Volyn region held the former head of the private enterprise VOLPAS, Serhii Volodymyrovych Drahanchuk, administratively liable for large-scale manipulations with customs payments during the importation of vehicles.
This was reported by the Telegram channel "Sudom po skhemakh" citing cases No. 163/1310/26 and No. 163/1312/26.
🚛 Scheme with forged certificates and foreign suppliers
The court found that, in the period from January to April of 2024, Serhii Volodymyrovych Drahanchuk, while serving as the enterprise’s head, submitted for customs clearance over 330 customs declarations for the importation into Ukraine of large batches of vehicles. The car suppliers were the Czech company Sale helper s.r.o. and the Bulgarian company TRADE AUTO COMPANY Ltd.
In order to evade mandatory payments, the declarant claimed a preferential regime (a reduced zero customs duty rate for goods from the EU), submitting EUR certificates of origin.1. Then, during checks, the customs authorities of Slovakia (the cities of Košice and Michalovce) officially confirmed that those certificates were not issued or certified by those institutions and therefore are forged.
As a result of a documentary desk audit by the Kyiv Customs, unlawful exemption from payment of duties and taxes was recorded in two protocols:
• Under the contract with the Czech supplier, the underpayment amounted to 21 878 367,67 UAH.
• Under the contract with the Bulgarian supplier, the underpayment amounted to 10 645 077,10 UAH.
The total amount of damage to the state for these episodes exceeded 32,5 million UAH.
⚖️ The court's verdict
The court fully established that Drahanchuk, as the head of the enterprise and the ultimate beneficiary of the scheme, deliberately used invalid documents to reduce the amount of customs payments. The company’s management did not file any claims or complaints with the European suppliers regarding the forged certificates, which confirmed the intentional nature of the offenses.
The rulings in the two cases were adopted on 01 October 2026. The court found Serhii Volodymyrovych Drahanchuk guilty of administrative offenses provided for in Art. 485 of the Customs Code of Ukraine, and imposed two penalties in the form of fines equal to 100% of the unpaid amounts of customs payments:
• 21 878 367,67 UAH — in case No. 163/1310/26;
• 10 645 077,10 UAH — in case No. 163/1312/26.
In addition, under each ruling the offender was charged 665,60 UAH in court fees payable to the state.
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