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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Fuks suspected of siphoning nearly 2 billion hryvnias from the Kyiv metro
The SBU and the Office of the Prosecutor General are investigating a possible scheme to siphon funds from the municipal enterprise Kyiv Metro through lease payments for 100 cars. According to the investigation, Pavlo Fuks may have been involved in the transactions, and some of the money may have been transferred to accounts of related persons and directed into cryptocurrency.
According to case materials, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv, at the request of a prosecutor from the Office of the Prosecutor General, froze funds in accounts at the payment institution Papaya Ltd linked to Fuks and another person, as well as the remaining loyalty points balance of the Estonian Baltic Technology Solutions OU. Outgoing transactions have been stopped.
How the wagon leasing scheme arose
In July 2009 the LLC Ukrrosleasing won a tender to supply 100 cars on lease to the municipal enterprise Kyiv Metro. The total contract amount with a payment schedule was 1,391 billion hryvnias. Part of the financing was provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
In February 2010 the owner of the Ukrainian company became the Cypriot Ukrrosleasing Cyprus Limited. It provided its Ukrainian subsidiary with a loan of more than 42 million dollars to purchase cars from Russian manufacturers. According to the case materials, the funds for the loan were preliminarily received from the Russian state bank VEB.RF.
In April 2017 Pavlo Fuks, through the Seychelles company TOP STONE LTD, bought 100% of Ukrrosleasing Cyprus Limited from a structure affiliated with VEB.RF. Available data indicate the deal was executed at nominal value, while the investigation suggests that actual payments may have been made via parallel transfers.
In December 2018 the formal owner of the company became the Hungarian Odelus-Construkt KFT, represented by Austrian citizen Uwe Christian Eßner. At the same time, the managers of the Cypriot and Ukrainian companies did not change.
In open Ukrainian registries, the ultimate beneficiary of LLC Austro-Hungarian Leasing Company, formerly known as Ukrrosleasing, is listed as Eßner. The founder is listed as Ukrrosleasing Cyprus Limited, and the director as Oleg Tolstyk. Fuks himself said he sold the company in 2018.
Where the metro's money was transferred
According to the investigation, from the end of 2018 to 2022 funds exceeding 1,75 billion hryvnias — roughly 57 million euros — were transferred from Kyiv Metro’s accounts to the leasing company’s account.
Of that amount, 886,5 million hryvnias, or about 28,88 million euros, the company transferred to accounts of Ukrrosleasing Cyprus Limited at Austria’s LGT Bank AG and Bank Winter & Co. AG. The payment descriptions stated repayment of a loan under the 2010 agreement.
The investigation also points to possible nonpayment of profit tax on these sums of at least 54 million hryvnias. Earlier, the Supreme Court recovered 1,924 billion hryvnias from the leasing company in favor of Kyiv Metro.
Subsequently, according to case materials, funds from the Cypriot company’s Austrian account were transferred to Fuks’s personal account at LGT Bank, to accounts of Odelus-Construkt KFT, the Swiss IAS INCOR ALLIANCE SWISS AG, and the company’s Cypriot secretary.
Part of the money from Odelus-Construkt KFT’s accounts and the personal account, the investigation alleges, was transferred to relatives and former partners of Fuks. Among the sums listed in the materials are 1,63 million euros for a daughter, 1 million euros for a wife, 5 million euros for a son, and 4,6 million euros for an ex-wife. Some funds also went to Emirates NBD bank in the United Arab Emirates.
Cryptocurrency transactions and asset seizure
Since 2025 the investigation has recorded cryptocurrency transfers through the Lithuanian and Polish companies Manerio, as well as the Maltese electronic money institution Papaya Ltd.
Case materials state that tens of millions of euros accumulated in Fuks’s accounts at Papaya and the related Estonian company Baltic Technology Solutions OU, which administers a loyalty program. Sources of receipts named include sales of the stablecoin USDC and transfers from Austria’s Petrotek Assets Holding GmbH. Some funds, according to the investigation, were sent to other persons.
The criminal proceedings include charges under the Criminal Code of Ukraine for sabotage, legalization of proceeds of crime in especially large amounts, and tax evasion in especially large amounts.
The court has now frozen the specified funds and the remaining loyalty program points, prohibiting their disposal and use. The circumstances of the case and the role of each of the figures must be established during the investigation.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Фукса підозрюють у виведенні майже 2 мільярдів гривень із Київського метро". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
