NABU has closed the case against a well-known grain trader: what the businessman faces
5 May 20:22
On May 5, 2026, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office announced the completion of the investigation into a case involving allegations against the owner of an international grain trading company. This was reported by NABU’s press service , as cited by "Komersant Ukrainian".
The case involves an oligarch of Russian origin who is suspected of organizing a scheme to embezzle grain from the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine (SFGCU) on an exceptionally large scale.
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Grain Supply Scheme
According to the investigation, grain belonging to the state-owned company was shipped to Saudi Arabia through a series of business entities.
These shipments were made on a cash-on-delivery basis, which did not comply with market rules. As a result, the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine did not receive the funds, incurring losses of $60 million. As noted by the NABU, “the cash-on-delivery terms created serious risks to the state-owned company’s financial stability.”
Part of these funds, specifically over $40.9 million, was laundered through foreign companies registered in Cyprus. This confirms the complexity and scale of the scheme, indicating its international nature. NABU emphasized that “money laundering through offshore companies is one of the key indicators of organized criminal activity.”
Charges and Court Sentences
In addition to the organizer, five other individuals were involved in the scheme.
The court has already handed down guilty verdicts against three former representatives of the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine (SFGCU) and the owner of a foreign company.
In particular, the court sentenced VAKS’s chairman’s advisor to 8 years in prison. The case against another representative of the grain trader is currently being heard in court.
As the judge noted, “deliberate violations of the law and defrauding the state will not go unpunished.”
As a reminder, unloading of the Asomatos vessel, which delivered 26,900 tons of wheat stolen by Russia from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, has been completed at the Egyptian port of Abu Qir. This is already the fourth such case in Egyptian ports since April.
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