Akst Oleksandr Alexander

German passport, Ukrainian smuggling and a suitcase of cash at the Serbian border

A businessman and German citizen known in Ukraine as the "king" of postal smuggling: founder of the operator "Premium Package," which media called one of the largest grey import channels into the country via parcels. The National Security and Defense Council included Akst in its sanctions lists as a smuggler since 2021 (the decree reportedly "lay dormant" in the President's Office for a month — a hint at high-level protection), and most recently in October 2024 for three years.

It wasn’t the scheme that betrayed him, but a joint escape with a "traitor" general

On June 7, 2022, Serbian border guards stopped a BMW with Akst driving. Next to him was the former head of internal security of the SBU, Andriy Naumov, whom Zelensky publicly called a traitor. Undeclared about €608,000, $125,000, and two emeralds were found in the car. Both were detained for money laundering; prior to this, they quietly lived together for several months in Germany. Serbia later convicted Naumov and refused to extradite him to Ukraine, while Akst, according to "Schemes," is already free. The emeralds are in his pocket — and, they say, not a single day of business downtime.