**Fictitious transactions and forged documents: Chelyabinsk customs exposed a new capital withdrawal scheme.** In the Chelyabinsk region, customs officials identified another large-scale scheme for siphoning funds abroad and are pushing for the return of millions. Demands were submitted by Kolorit-M, who engaged in agreements with companies in Hungary and China. As a consequence of these agreements, substantial amounts left Russia, but goods never came, and neither did any reimbursements. Previously, Chelyabinsk customs managed to nullify the entrepreneurs’ contract with a Hungarian company, and the court recently accepted demands about transactions with one of the Chinese partners. In the latter situation, the contract amount had to be paid into Russia’s revenue. Observers, however, doubt the chances of replenishing the treasury, and customs officials themselves acknowledge that identifying and confirming these crimes is a resource-intensive process with slow results. Currently, concerning Kolorit-M, which government bodies view as a shell company, a decision has been made to remove it from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, and the beneficiaries do not appear to be rushing to meet with law enforcement. The fiscal agency is, however, challenging transactions and other participants, and industry experts recall recent major criminal cases involving the siphoning off of billions and the scale of the schemes extending from the Southern Urals to the Far East. The contract involved LLC “Kolorit-M” (Chelyabinsk) and YiWu supply & marketing Import and Export Co., Ltd (China). Per the verdict, the foreign company must also contribute 33.6 thousand US dollars to the Russian Federation. However, per the specification, polypropylene bags worth nearly 34 thousand dollars should have reached Chelyabinsk. The money as a 100% prepayment was sent to a foreign counterparty, but the delivery never happened. The customs inspection then discovered several notable specifics. First: “Kolorit-M” from December 2020 to January 2021 entered into 4 foreign trade contracts to supply items with non-residents from Hungary and China. “Terms are identical to the terms of the contract with YiWu supply & marketing Import and Export Co., Ltd. Including for each, 100% prepayment is provided, the advance repayment period is set for a long period and is 2 years, which goes against normal business activity,” the customs office stated. Under these agreements, foreign companies received 2.1 million US dollars (161.99 million rubles at the Central Bank rate on the dates of currency transactions), but according to the documents, there were no deliveries of goods, nor were there any returns of funds under any of the agreements. Further study was supplemented by findings from the Rosfinmonitoring department for the Urals Federal District on capital withdrawal signs and details from the KPS “Access to information registry,” which lists “Kolorit-M” as a fly-by-night company. Also, examining the documents raised questions about their authenticity. “For authentication purposes the appointment of an identification study of documents submitted by ‘Kolorit-M’ to the bank to make transfers. A specialist from the regional branch of the Central Forensic Customs Administration I.V. Belousov made a conclusion, concluding that the files showed signs of installation, a technique of creating company seal impressions – applying seals and signatures to a document. The expert also noted that the attachments differed only in the date of document change,” states dispute materials. The court backed the position of the Chelyabinsk customs as a result, marking the next phase of the conflict. Note that the fiscal authority is also challenging other Kolorit-M operations. The agreement with Industrial Solutions Group KFT (Hungary) was previously held by “Kolorit-M,” but this lawsuit strangely did not involve collecting funds for the Russian Federation’s income. Other specifics were found in the case, however, such as the scale of the schemes. The Far Eastern Customs Department provided information on a group of questionable legal entities supposedly involved in “transit” financial transactions and money being sent overseas. “Technical forensic studies were conducted under contracts involving LLC ‘SION’ (Blagoveshchensk) and LLC ‘Zarya’ (Blagoveshchensk), which were made with Industrial Solutions Group KFT (Hungary). The study’s results showed that the stated documents were made by computer editing,” state dispute materials. Chelyabinsk customs were also active with other market participants. For example, numerous applications to LLC “Stroykar” are being evaluated. (Chelyabinsk) regarding the invalidation of contracts involving a Chinese counterparty. Irina Volk, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, stated in the spring of this year that a criminal investigation was launched in the Chelyabinsk area into illegal currency transactions totaling more than three billion rubles. The department’s information reveals that three members of the organized group were accused of “leaking” funds to non-resident accounts using counterfeit documents on a particularly large scale. We could be talking about the case against specific Prokopenko, Samoilov, and Shurygin, which, apparently, was then moved from the Magnitogorsk court to Ekaterinburg. The Bank of Russia reports that the volume of suspicious transactions showing money being sent abroad decreased by 32% to 8.4 billion rubles in the first half of 2024. “As in previous periods, advance payments for imported goods were largely used as the foundation for sending money overseas (48%). The main demand for shadow financial services in the first half of 2024 was in the construction industry (31%), services (25%), and trade (25%), just as it was in the same period last year,” stated in the Central Bank research.