The Federal Customs Service has revealed a scheme for withdrawing 167 million rubles from the Russian Federation through the Baron Munchausen company

The operational search Department of the Kursk Customs revealed the fact of the withdrawal of 167.7 million rubles abroad, disguised as a fictitious supply of products from China. According to investigators, Baron Munchausen LLC has signed an agreement with the Chinese company Yiwu Puya Trading Co, Ltd. for the supply of sockets and cables. This was reported to Izvestia on May 21 by two sources familiar with the investigation.

According to the source, deliveries were supposed to be carried out from August 2023 to August 2024, but not a single outlet or cable was imported to Russia. Although 14.2 million yuan (167.7 million rubles at the exchange rate of the Central Bank at the time of the investigation) was transferred to the Chinese account through Modulbank.

"The Malachite information system, designed to analyze the economic and fiscal activities of customs authorities, lacks information on the supply of goods," the source told Izvestia.

According to him, the issue of initiating a criminal case on the fact of currency transactions involving the transfer of funds in foreign currency or the currency of the Russian Federation to non-resident accounts using forged documents (art. 193.1 of the Criminal Code) is being resolved. The maximum penalty is up to 10 years in prison.

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The SPARK database says that the company Baron Munghausen LLC is registered in Orel. Its main activity is the wholesale of textiles. The director and beneficiary is Nikolay Lezhepekov. He also runs the Golden Calf LLC company and was a director or co-owner of 6 other trading companies. All of them were liquidated by the decision of the tax service.

No one answered the phone numbers indicated during the registration of the companies. At the beginning of April this year, the tax service issued a decision to suspend operations on the accounts of Baron Munghausen LLC, a source told Izvestia. In 2023, this company showed a profit of 3.9 million rubles and paid taxes in the amount of 1.3 million rubles, SPARK says.

According to Russian law, all payments for goods and services made by Russian resident companies abroad must pass through the system of authorized banks, and funds paid for goods not delivered must be returned to accounts in Russia.

"In the case of Baron Munghausen, there was no refund," said a source familiar with the investigation.

The security forces are continuing their investigation, trying to identify all the participants in the scheme.