Law-Enforcers Take Interest In One Of Minsk’s Biggest Retailers

Ivan Berazouski is suspected in tax evasion.

The Investigatory committee started a criminal case over suspicion in tax evasion, with regard to CEO of the company NP-Service Ivan Berazouski. The sources familiar with the situation inside the company informed this to tut.by. The fact of a criminal case started against a major retailer has been confirmed by the Investigatory Committee.

"The criminal case was initiated under Part 2 of Art. 243 (especially large-scale tax evasion) of the Criminal Code of Belarus. Today, on January 10, following the instructions of the investigators, officers of the State Administration for Struggle with Organized Criminality of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted procedural actions in the office premises of the company within the framework of this criminal case, that is, searches,” — official representative of the Investigatory Committee of Belarus Siarhei Kabakovich said.

The NP-Service" is engaged in the distribution of goods of the food group, owns a network of more than 50 food stores “Domashniy” and the supermarket “Central” in Minsk.

“On Friday, the accounts of thje company where 2,5 people work were arrested. The sum of the claims, as far as I know, is $ 1 million. This is nothinmg for a company which pays the same amount of taxes monthly. It is clear that there can be some tax claims with regard to the company, but it remains unclear why they needed to paralyze its work, making some masked show. Especially at the background of such loud statements last year about liberalization and de-criminalization of business,” — the interlocutor familiar with the situation commented.

A source close to the company's management claims that every effort is being made to resolve the situation.

“Our company has always tried to comply as closely as possible with the current legislation, did not allow non-fulfillment of obligations to partners, took care of its employees. This is what has become the key to the successful operation of the company for more than two decades. The actions of the law-enforcement agencies that lead to the halt of the company's work in such a situation can lead to disproportionately greater damage for the state budget, employees of the company and their families, counterparties, to which the NP-Service has obligations. If there was an offense, if mistakes were made by employees or company officials, the NP-Service is in every way ready to contribute to the elimination of such violations, to compensate for the damage caused,” — the company’s representative said.

Ivan Berazouski himself, according to the journalists, is in London.

Berazouski occupies the 61st position in the top 200 most influential businessmen of Belarus, according to Ejednevnik.

The NP-Service has long been involved in not only distribution, but also logistics, and commercial real estate development. The company owns real estate with a total area of more than 100 thousand square meters. The annual turnover is more than 125 million dollars.

One of the most notorious transactions of Berazouski was obtaining control over the legendary “Central” supermarket in Minsk in autumn 2014.