"There is also a problem from the side of business, which is used to working almost in violation of the laws of our legal field..." Deputy Head of the President's Office Rostyslav Shurma remarked in an interview, hinting that with the growing pressure on entrepreneurs, not everything is so straightforward.
So that you don't lose sight of the dazzling whiteness of Rostyslav's coat, we will use the example of his billion-dollar venture matryoshka to show what work on the edge of the legal field is like, which allows you to optimize taxes for hundreds of millions of hryvnias.
How to build a business on the edge of the legal field?
So, Rostyslav's brother Oleh Shurma is a co-owner of LLC "KD Energy 2" and LLC "Renewable Energy of Zaporizhzhia", which were the main recipients of money from renewable ecological resources from the investigation of colleagues from a group of anti-corruption and information projects called "Bigus.info".
The founder of the Ukrainian "KD Energy 2" is the Cypriot KD 2 Energy holding limited, which is 50% owned by Oleh Shurma (the rest is owned by offshore Adelis Inc from the Seychelles and Dolpinta Holding limited from Cyprus).
LLC "Renewable Energy Zaporizhzhia" is fully owned by another Ukrainian LLC "Ecopower Invest". This firm is 76% owned by the JSC Closed Non-Diversified Venture Corporate Investment Fund "Helios" (venture fund), the remaining 24% belongs to the Cypriot Zambelica Limited.
The JSC Closed Non-Diversified Venture Corporate Investment Fund "Helios" is one of the most important assets of the Shurma family, its authorized capital is UAH 435 million.
From December 2019 to November 2021, Rostyslav Shurma was directly listed as the director of the fund. But after his transition to the president's office, Ksenia Shurma, Oleh's wife, became the director of the fund.
Currently, the founder of the fund is LLC "Sonyera Invest" (authorized capital - UAH 150,000), and the beneficiaries are Oleh Shurma, Svitlana Stoyan and Olha Kuzina. Just think what kind of "partners" Shurma has. Svitlana Stoyan from Mariupol is known as a supplier of books and office equipment to institutions in the Donetsk region for up to UAH 116,000, Olha Kuzina from Zaporizhzhia was a sole trader with the main code of economic activity – the activity of cafes and mobile canteens.
Obviously, LLC "Sonyera invest" with a capital of 150 thousand UAH could hardly capitalize the JSC Closed Non-Diversified Venture Corporate Investment Fund "Helios" for 453 million without debt funds. It is not known who lent LLC "Sonyera invest" these millions, because it is a commercial secret. But if it is a foreign company, then LLC "Sonyera invest" can safely withdraw currency abroad.
Of course, the company is not limited to these legal entities (there are dozens of companies), but these will be enough to understand why all these tricks were needed.
Why build a business on the edge of the legal field?
In general, the offshore ownership structure is already something bad and illegal, but we are not philanderers like others. However, venture capital funds are much more interesting because of their exceptional convenience in tax optimization.
Well, finally, we found confirmation of Shurma's legendary expertise.
Thus, according to the current Tax Code, all joint investment institutions (a venture fund like "Helios" is one of them) are exempt from income tax and have half the tax rate on dividends. And they can lend funds to their own companies and thereby reduce the income tax of subsidiaries. In general, the transfer of money, and therefore the tax liability, to enterprises with preferential taxation is an optimization classic, but any tax expert will confirm: this scheme crosses the border of the legal field, and often already stands behind it.
Let's consider these nuances using the examples already known to us the JSC Closed Non-Diversified Venture Corporate Investment Fund "Helios" and LLC "Sonyera invest" and calculate how many "optimized" taxes the state does not receive.
According to the YouControl analytical system, LLC "Sonyera invest"is a profitable company. In 2022, the company declared UAH 328 million before taxation. However, in the financial statements regarding the income tax, only zeros and dashes are indicated instead of tens of millions of hryvnias, which are more suitable for a company with an income of a third of a billion (see Fig. 1).
Here it is worth noting that the ownership of LLC "Sonyera invest" was formed according to all the rules of white business – through offshore companies from the Marshall Islands (Noda Investment Limited – disappeared from the fall of 2022, Warren properties ltd and Vincent Holding Company), which the beneficiaries owned through a Cyprus trust fund (Marithema Nominee Services Limited). Usually, such complex ownership structures are used for legalization of funds and, yes, for tax optimization.
Just wondering how it works?
In addition, it is not only LLC "Sonyera invest" that does not pay taxes.
The JSC Closed Non-Diversified Venture Corporate Investment Fund "Helios" turned out to be a co-owner of 26 legal entities in Ukraine and two more in Hungary. The main areas of business are "green" electricity, construction and finance. The fund itself managed to earn enough profits (read – withdraw funds from subsidiaries) to acquire assets worth UAH 1.4 billion, according to financial statements for the end of 2022. A small part of the funds was invested in the property of the companies, and the majority was loaned to them, with interest, of course. This allowed the entire group of companies not to pay hundreds of millions of hryvnias in income tax.
This can be evidenced by the financial statements of one of the 26 companies in which the JSC Closed Non-Diversified Venture Corporate Investment Fund "Helios" is a co-owner – the "Master Finance" LLC, which provides financial services. For 2022, the company's revenue was UAH 85 million (see Fig. 2). But the income tax was equal to only UAH 181,000, as financial expenses amounted to more than UAH 74 million. That is, "Master Finance" paid someone from whom it borrowed money as much as UAH 74 million for servicing this loan. And if this loophole did not exist and the creditor did not lend "Master of Finance" money, but contributed it to the authorized capital, then these 74 million would have become the company's profit. After that, the tax in the amount of 18% of the profit would grow from a pitiful 181 thousand hryvnias to about 13 million hryvnias.
And this is not their only venture fund. Oleh Shurma also has the "Prostir" and "Quantum" companies, registered in 2021 and 2020, respectively. They are not as "profitable" as the fund "Helios", but they are also not insignificant – the registered authorized capital is UAH 135 million. The "Quantum" company is also the full owner of the "Quantum Home" LLC. Shurma's fleet of five cars is registered to this firm, with the Audi E-Tron S Sportback and Tesla Y purchased after the full-scale invasion.
The amounts invested in the funds, as well as the excess profits, are difficult to explain both with Oleh's great business abilities and Rostyslav Shurma's salary in the Akhmetov group (yes, we asked insiders), where he worked before working for Yermak. Amounts of underpaid taxes to the state, even during the war, do not suit a statesman from an office with an unblemished reputation.
However, both the first and second amounts can be explained by the influence of this respected statesman. Before Rostyslav Shurma found himself in the president's office, only Zaporizhstal could tell about his exceptional organizational skills. And now, you can hear about his talents and working abilities in the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC), and in the JSC "United Mining and Chemical Company", and in the "Energy Company of Ukraine", and in the "Ukrnafta", and in the enterprise "Forests of Ukraine". In addition, you can hear about his great achievements at the Kremenchuk Automobile Plant AvtoKrAZ), and in the plant "Zaporizhtransformator", and in the PJSC "Zaporizhjiaoblenergo", and in the JSC "Mykolaivoblenergo", as well as in the JSC "Ukrainian distribution networks" and in the JSC "Operator of GTS of Ukraine".
Tired of this state of affairs? We are also tired.
But Shurma manages everything everywhere. A real professional will either create the right business schemes, or negotiate with the right people to solve urgent issues.
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So, it turns out that UAH 320 million for providing electricity to the occupiers is only part of Shurma's billions. In addition to these amounts, there are big questions regarding the optimization of taxes for hundreds of millions of hryvnias.
You can say that many optimize money, and you will be right, but... We are talking about an official in a warring country who wants to become the prime minister and in general would have to change the business culture here by his own example. We are talking about an official who can directly address the president of Ukraine without Yermak, which means that he thus has influence on the parliament, and should, by his own efforts, change the conditions for the introduction of business in our country for the better. But all his efforts were spent on how to underpay money to his native country.
When Rostyslav Shurma commented on the investigation of the Bigus.info group of anti-corruption and information projects regarding the earnings of his brother's solar power plants in occupied Zaporizhzhia, he did not deny the facts, but emphasized that Kolomoisky was to blame for everything. They said that Shurma's team stopped the looting of the state by the oligarch, and now the oligarch is showing his displeasure so much that "some journalists from Bigus.info were involved in a systemic campaign against Yermak's deputy. "
Rostyslav Ihorovych, everything is much worse – your closest relatives (even you from the past) who opened offshore and venture capital funds, lend to themselves within the group, withdraw funds and do not pay taxes were involved in the systemic campaign. Do not lose vigilance!