An investigative-operational group of security officials is conducting searches at several mining and processing enterprises of Metinvest in Krivoy Rog in the case of understating tax liabilities for rent for the use of subsoil. OLIGARKH learned about this from a report by Ukrayinska Pravda with reference to the press service of the SBU. “On February 1, in Kryvyi Rih, an investigative group consisting of employees of the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Bureau of Economic Security and the Security Council of Ukraine, based on the determinations of the Pechersky District Court of Kiev, conducts investigative actions at several mining and processing enterprises,” the SBU said. – SBU employees are involved in the process on the basis of instructions from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, which provides procedural guidance for criminal proceedings. It is open under Part 3 of Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine, jurisdiction in it is determined for BEB.” According to the investigators, some officials of the mining and processing enterprises deliberately underestimated tax liabilities for rent for the use of subsoil, which led to the non-receipt of large amounts of funds to the state budget of Ukraine. It is noted that in order to objectively establish all the facts, permission was obtained for authorized inspections of deposits, storage facilities and production facilities, as well as for searches of administrative buildings. The Economic Security Bureau, in turn, clarifies that, according to the investigation, company officials in the period 2018-2020 carried out deliberate tax evasion in the amount of about UAH 18 billion. This they say is confirmed by the relevant conclusions of analytical studies conducted by the State Tax Service of Ukraine. It is reported that BEB detectives are currently conducting searches in the administrative buildings of companies. Specialists of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, KNIISE and geodesists are also involved in the investigation, the report says. Recall that the main shareholders of Metinvest are Rinat Akhmetov’s SCM group (71.24%) and Vadim Novinsky’s Smart Holding (23.76%), jointly managing the company. As previously reported, searches are being carried out at the Akhmetov and Novinsky mines in Krivoy Rog