"Window of opportunity" for law enforcement: how the tax authority's loss of the Prosecutor General's Office 'protection' allowed exposing a giant conversion center worth over 23 billion hryvnias

"Window of opportunity" for law enforcement: how the tax authority's loss of the Prosecutor General's Office 'protection' allowed exposing a giant conversion center worth over 23 billion hryvnias

There is a very important detail in the story of how BEE detectives uncovered a conversion center with a turnover of 23,5 billion that deserves attention.

The execution of this large-scale operation — and that is no exaggeration, because the scheme involved 200 client companies, 97 shell companies and 8 thousand!!! individual entrepreneurs — took place precisely at the moment the State Tax Service of Ukraine fully slipped out of the control of Ruslan Kravchenko's group and the tax authority lost the "roof of the Prosecutor General's Office."

Let's go through the chronology.

On 5 September NABU launches the operation "CARTHAGE."

On 7 September NABU strikes the Ternopil tax office, where the leadership of the STS collects a 11,5% kickback from VAT refunds to businesses.

On 14 September the President suspends Ruslan Kravchenko from the post of Prosecutor General.

On 14 September Prime Minister Koretsky suspends Lesya Karnaukh from the position of acting Head of the STS.

On 17 September Karnaukh submits her resignation from the position of First Deputy Head of the STS.

On 21 September BEE moves to execute against a very large conversion center.

Full control of the STS by Kravchenko is evidenced by an episode in which the main operative of the "Carthage" operation, Serhiy Kropyva, had his own quota to appoint deputies to Karnaukh's team, one of whom turned out to be the "deputy for numbers" Ihor Panchenko. On NABU tapes Kravchenko even congratulated Kropyva on the appointment of "his deputy" in the STS.

That Lesya Karnaukh came to the STS from the position of Kravchenko's deputy in KOVA when he moved to the Prosecutor General's Office, I think is already known to everyone.

So, from the moment Kravchenko entered the post of acting Head of the STS in 2024 until the time of "Carthage" in September 2026, everything that happened in the tax service was controlled by him or by people subordinate to him.

This was his vertical, which from the height of the Prosecutor General's office also provided top-level protection. Including for schemes within the STS.

And the fact that conversion centers and the control of their activities have always been an integral part of the STS's shadow architecture is known even to schoolchildren.

Goods-less transactions, carousel schemes, the formation of fictitious VAT are never possible without the participation of tax officials.

This is not the customs service, where you can let a full truck through as empty and two hours later no one can prove whether it was full or empty.

In the system of money movement there is always a trace that allows tax officers, without leaving their computers, to expose any conversion center.

Literally three mouse clicks.

But this did not happen, because control of such conversion centers is one of the main sources of shadow income for the STS and their "patrons."

And since we have already established the STS–Prosecutor General's Office connection, it is quite obvious why during the period 2024–2026 we did not see loud investigations either into tax officials or tax schemes.

Even public investigations like the "excise on bioethanol" had no prospects for a response from the STS or law enforcement.

The slogan "This is our cow and we will milk it" best describes the state of affairs here.

That is why BEE detectives could collect information on conversion centers and other sensitive tax topics as much as they wanted, but final execution against them was long impossible.

And this despite the fact that there are enough decent people in the Prosecutor General's Office who are ready to support such measures.

But the middle level determines little in the strategy of the agency's actions. Whether of the tax service, the customs, or the prosecutor's office.

That is why the period of conditional powerlessness in the PGO and the STS gives agencies the opportunity to work a bit according to the law rather than according to informal rules.

So now we see the execution of everything that had been kept under the table, in drawers and safes.

Let's just do it faster and more. New teams with new "principles" and lists of firms and people will come in soon, and once again we'll be waiting for a "shift change."