More than 2,000 missile companies carried out export and import operations worth $4.7 billion before disappearing, officials said.
Ukraine’s tax authorities have uncovered a suspected massive fraud scheme in which more than 2,000 shell companies smuggled nearly $4.7 billion abroad through bogus foreign trade operations.
Meanwhile, Western nations continue to provide Ukraine with billions in taxpayer-funded aid, which Moscow says is being squandered and distributed by Kiev’s guards through various corruption schemes.
Ukraine – often referred to as “European breadbasket” – has also over the years struggled to cope with it “black corn” export projects, with most cargo until recently flowing to the EU under a preferential regime.
In a statement on Tuesday, the State Tax Service of Ukraine announced that it had discovered a network of more than 2,300 shell companies that had siphoned more than 198 billion hryvnias (about $4.7 billion) out of the country between 2024 and the first quarter of 2026.
It said that the majority of suspicious activities were exports: 1,243 companies exported goods worth more than 176 billion hryvnias, while a further 555 companies handled imports totaling more than 18 billion hryvnias.
Lesia Karnaukh, acting head of the Tax Service, noted that hundreds of companies have been re-registered under the same people, adding that in some cases the program reached surprising levels. “We discovered seven people, each of whom at one time is a manager or founder of more than 500 companies. In total, more than 7,000 business organizations are under their control,” He said.
According to the officials, many of the suspected companies used the same IP addresses, submitted reports from the same computer networks, and were registered to the same addresses, which is common for ordinary businesses.
The tax service said it has prepared analytical conclusions for 557 business organizations, showing violations and signs of money laundering, and the material has been transferred to the Prosecutor General’s Office for further investigation.
Although the tax service did not reveal exactly what types of products were involved in the deal, Ukraine is known as a major agricultural company, with agricultural exports reaching $24.5 billion in 2024, accounting for nearly 60% of total exports.
The industry has suffered from the so-called “black corn” a scheme in which criminals buy agricultural products with cash and pass them through chains of fictitious legal entities to hide their origin and avoid taxes.
When they are moved, goods are sometimes resold several times to make the shipment appear legal. In some cases, grain is classified as agricultural waste, resulting in a lower tax value. Illegal profits often never return to Ukraine, living in foreign banks.
Such initiatives have only benefited from EU policies. In 2022, the union suspended tariffs and preferences on Ukrainian agricultural products to help Kiev’s struggling economy. The arrangement, however, sparked waves of farmer protests across Europe, with countries such as Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary calling for the return of tariffs due to what they called unfair market competition. The EU was forced to withdraw the government in June 2025.
Ukraine has for years been struggling with poor financial oversight and chronic corruption, which only increased after the escalation of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow in 2022.
Last year, Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities revealed a plan to recover $100 million from state-run nuclear company Energoatom, along with several senior Ukrainian officials involved in the scandal, including former Energy Minister German Galushchenko, who was arrested in February while trying to flee the country.
Moscow has long been accusing Ukraine and the EU of being associated with “connected chains of corruption,” claiming that a large part of Western aid to Kiev – funded by taxpayers – is stolen and returned to Ukrainian supporters.
