National Police expose large-scale scheme producing Ukrainian drugs in Russia involving oligarch Zhevago
The National Police of Ukraine has uncovered a large-scale pharmaceutical scheme involving a Ukrainian oligarch who organized the production and sale of Ukrainian medicines in the territory of the Russian Federation.
"Agents of the Department of Strategic Investigations, together with investigators of the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine, have uncovered a multi-level criminal scheme controlled by a 51-year-old Ukrainian businessman, a native of the Russian Federation (…) The perpetrators have established a "scheme" for obtaining pharmacopoeial samples, which are standards for quality control of Ukrainian medicines. Without their presence, the production and sale of domestic medicines in Russia would be impossible," the report on the department's website said on Wednesday.
As a source in law enforcement agencies clarified to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, this refers to Konstantin Zhevago.
According to the National Police, the scheme involved the head of a Ukrainian pharmaceutical corporation, financial managers, persons responsible for the export of pharmacopoeial samples, the head of the Russian representative office, officials of controlled medical companies of the two countries, and distributors. The leader, having full control over the structure of the companies, personally identified the participants of the criminal group, coordinated their actions, and distributed roles among them.
"Even before the start of the full-scale invasion, officials of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical company transferred to Russian manufacturers a full package of documentation necessary for the manufacture of Ukrainian medicines. After obtaining permits, two Russian pharmaceutical factories were able to begin manufacturing and selling medicines for the treatment of cardiovascular, neurological, urological, and other diseases without Ukrainian interference," the National Police reports.
It is noted that such a step allowed the owner-oligarch to simultaneously avoid the negative consequences of doing business in the Russian Federation after the events of 2014 and continue to receive illegal income. However, for further cooperation, the organizer put forward a condition: Russian pharmaceutical manufacturers undertook to continue to apply the logo of the Ukrainian corporation on the packaging of medicines manufactured in the Russian Federation. The country of origin of the products is still indicated in the documentation of the manufacturer - Ukraine.
An important condition for the implementation of a large-scale pharmaceutical transaction was the supply of reference samples necessary for the official registration and quality control of medicines in Russian regulatory institutions. Therefore, after the legislative ban on the export of medicines introduced in 2022, the Ukrainian businessman created a controlled non-resident company abroad. It was through it that the Russians received the necessary documentation and quality samples of the drugs. To do this, the businessman involved the commercial director of the enterprise, which is the official distributor of the State Pharmacopoeia of Ukraine, and his wife as partners, whose duties included receiving and transferring reference samples to a foreign "strip" company.
The department emphasizes that the organizer personally controlled the transfer of rights and production technologies of Ukrainian companies. As a result, a number of medical products of Ukrainian companies' trademarks became officially registered in the Russian Federation - the corresponding license agreements can be found in the State Register of Medicines of the Russian Federation. Although this data was entered even before the full-scale invasion, the attackers continued to renew the property rights in 2023-2024. This became possible after the Ukrainian side officially renounced copyrights to products manufactured in the territory of the Russian Federation. It was on this basis that the Russian enterprise controlled by the Ukrainian businessman was able to register a patent right for itself.
"Medicines labeled by the Ukrainian concern are widely used by Russian doctors to treat the occupiers. Open sources contain sufficient evidence of the conclusion of contracts for the supply of these medications with military hospitals and institutions of the Russian Federation, as well as similar structures in the temporarily occupied territories of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic - the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General's Office, units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Penitentiary Service and other law enforcement agencies of the aggressor country and illegal armed formations," the report states. From the beginning of 2022 to the first quarter of 2024, the sale of medicines produced in Russia using Ukrainian technologies and standards brought the aggressor country's budget more than 100 million rubles in tax revenues. The total amount of profit of the Russian enterprise controlled by the Ukrainian oligarch during this time amounted to at least 892 million rubles, which is more than UAH 420 million.
On July 16, special agents and police investigators conducted more than 40 searches in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv and Kyiv region. In particular, in office and production premises, as well as in the places of residence of the persons involved. They seized documentation, seals, computer equipment, etc.
The police informed the leader of the criminal organization — a Ukrainian oligarch — and eight of his accomplices about suspicion under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: - Parts 1 and 2 of Article 255 (Creation, leadership of a criminal community or criminal organization, as well as participation in it); - Part 4 of Article 27, Part 4 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 111-2 (assistance to an aggressor state) - Part 3 of Article 212 (evasion of taxes, fees (mandatory payments) and Part 3 of Article 209 (legalization (laundering) of property obtained by crime).
Further measures are currently underway to identify all persons involved in the crime, document the sources of profit from illegal activities, and seize corporate rights and assets of the sanctioned business in favor of the state. The maximum penalty is up to 12 years of imprisonment.