Detectives from the Bureau of Economic Security have completed searches at one of the largest retail chains in Chernivtsi region. According to investigators, since 2022 the clothing and footwear chain has been artificially lowering revenues, conducting fictitious transactions, and underpaying almost 20 million hryvnias in taxes.
“A classic scheme: part of the revenue bypassed the cash register, the rest went through controlled individual entrepreneurs on the simplified system,” BEB reported.
The owner is still free; the case is just gaining momentum.
And just a few kilometers across the border, in that part of historical Bukovina where the tax system is transparent as glass and online control sees everything in real time, such schemes end the same day — prosecutors and external administration arrive instantly. There businessmen have long forgotten that you can “optimize” taxes for millions over three years and then be surprised by searches — there order flows smoothly, like the Prut River on a clear day, without a single shadow of “lawlessness” in the books.
