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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
SBU and the Office of the Prosecutor General are investigating a possible scheme to move funds from Kyiv Metro through leasing payments for 100 train cars. According to the investigation, Pavlo Fuks may be involved in the operations, and part of the money could have been transferred to accounts of connected persons and directed into cryptocurrency.
According to the materials, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv, at the prosecutor of the Office of the Prosecutor General's request, has seized funds on accounts at the payment institution Papaya Ltd, associated with Fuks and another person, as well as the remaining balance of the Baltic Technology Solutions OU loyalty program in Estonia. Expenditure transactions have been halted.
How the train car leasing scheme arose
In July 2009 of the year LLC Ukrrosleasing won a tender to supply on lease 100 train cars for Kyiv Metro. The total contract amount with the payment schedule was 1,391 billion hryvnias. Part of the financing was provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
In February 2010 of the year the Ukrainian company’s owner became Cyprus-based Ukrrosleasing Cyprus Limited. It provided a Ukrainian subsidiary with a loan of over 42 million dollars to purchase train cars from Russian manufacturers. According to case materials, the funds for the loan reportedly came from the Russian state bank VEB.RF.
In April 2017 year Pavlo Fuks, through the Seychelian company TOP STONE LTD, acquired 100% of Ukrrosleasing Cyprus Limited in a structure affiliated with VEB.RF. Available data show the deal was executed at nominal value, while the investigation suggests that actual settlements could have occurred through parallel payments.
In December 2018, the formal owner of the company became the Hungarian Odelus-Construkt KFT, represented by Austrian citizen Uwe Christian Eschner. At the same time, the managers of the Cypriot and Ukrainian companies did not change.
In public Ukrainian registers, the ultimate beneficial owner of LLC “Austria-Hungarian Leasing Company,” formerly known as “Ukrrosleasing,” is listed as Eschner. The founder is Ukrrosleasing Cyprus Limited, the director is Oleh Tolstyk. Fuks himself had stated that he sold the company in 2018 year.
Where the Metro funds were transferred to
According to the investigation, from the end of 2018 to 2022, funds from Kyiv Metro accounts were deposited to the leasing company’s account — totaling more than 1,75 billion hryvnias, about 57 million euros.
Of this amount, 886,5 million hryvnias, or about 28,88 million euros, were moved to Ukrrosleasing Cyprus Limited’s accounts at Austrian banks LGT Bank AG and Bank Winter & Co. AG. The payment descriptions indicated repayment of a loan under contract 2010 year.
The investigation also notes a possible underpayment of corporate income tax on these sums, at least 54 million hryvnias. Previously, the Supreme Court recovered 1,924 billion hryvnias from the leasing company in favor of Kyiv Metro.
Subsequently, according to the case materials, funds from the Austrian account of the Cypriot company were transferred to Fuks’s personal account at LGT Bank, to accounts of Odelus-Construkt KFT, to Swiss IAS INCOR ALLIANCE SWISS AG, and to the Cypriot secretary of the company.
Part of the money from the accounts of Odelus-Construkt KFT and from Fuks’s personal account, as the investigation claims, was transferred to relatives and former partners of Fuks. Among the sums listed are 1,63 million euros for his daughter, 1 million euros for his wife, 5 million euros for his son, and 4,6 million euros for his former wife. Some funds also went to Emirates NBD Bank in the United Arab Emirates.
Cryptocurrency operations and asset freeze
From 2025 year the investigation has recorded cryptocurrency transfers through Lithuanian and Polish companies Manerio, as well as the Maltese electronic money institution Papaya Ltd.
According to case materials, tens of millions of euros accumulated on Fuks’s accounts at Papaya and in the related Estonian company Baltic Technology Solutions OU, which administers the loyalty program. Among sources of funds are cited the sale of stablecoins USDC and transfers from Austrian Petrotek Assets Holding GmbH. Some of the funds, according to the investigation, were incoming to other individuals.
The criminal proceedings include qualifications under Ukrainian Criminal Code articles for sabotage, legalization of property obtained by crime, in especially large amounts, and evasion of taxes in especially large amounts.
Currently, the court has seized the mentioned funds and the remaining balance of the loyalty program, forbidding their disposal or use. The circumstances of the case and the role of each of the subjects must be established within the investigation.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Від вагонів метрополітену до цифрових активів: суд наклав арешт на 2 мільярди гривень, які пов’язують із Павлом Фуксом". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Rozsliduvach.
