Illegal tobacco manufacturers manipulate the judicial system

Vadim Alperin, a well-known “godfather of smuggling” and master of complex schemes, is behind the Odesa tobacco group, according to the State Bureau of Investigation. His activities have long raised numerous questions, but the real problem is his influence on the judicial system, which appears to be playing in his favour.

Alperin’s orbit

The circle of companies linked to Alperin includes the cigarette manufacturer Orion Tobacco LLC, as well as several other firms: Agropriminvest LLC, Davos Group LLC, Nice Invest LLC, Somerton Tobacco LLC, Southern Tobacco Company LLC, and others.

As early as 2022, searches were conducted at the “Orion Tobacco” factory, during which equipment and over a million packs of cigarettes with counterfeit excise stamps were seized. The company’s director fled but was soon detained and remanded in custody.

At that time, prosecutors filed a motion to transfer the seized equipment to the State Property Management Agency (ARMA). However, the courts intervened.

Judicial “coincidences”

In January 2024, Shevchenkivskyi District Court judge Vitaly Tsyktych unexpectedly granted a motion by Davos Group LLC, which claimed rights to the equipment. The judge lifted the seizure and the transfer of the equipment to ARMA, effectively returning it to Alperin.

However, in May 2024, following new searches at the factories, the equipment was seized again by the State Bureau of Investigation, and the tax inspection identified damage to the state amounting to 127 million hryvnia. Orion Tobacco LLC was stripped of its licence.

And so, the case returns to the same judge, Tsyktych. He postponed hearings for several months, dragging out the process of seizing the equipment. Under public pressure, on 11 June, he finally issued a ruling on the seizure.

New chapter: motion to transfer to ARMA

On 17 June 2024, prosecutors filed a motion to transfer the seized equipment to ARMA. The case was assigned to judge Tatyana Ovsyepyan, known for her controversial rulings, including the deprivation of rights of Euromaidan participants and the blocking of investigations into cases involving senior judges.

Judge Ovsyepyan has not scheduled a hearing on this matter for over a month, claiming through unofficial channels that she is waiting for the appellate court’s decision. There is a likelihood that the appeal will again lead to the equipment being returned to Alperin’s hands.

Conclusion

The scheme appears obvious: instead of transferring the seized equipment to state management, it is repeatedly returned to those behind the illegal production. This allows them to earn again and again.

Such actions cast doubt on the effectiveness of the fight against the shadow market for tobacco products and show how deeply corruption has penetrated the judicial system.