Kyiv court fines manager 820,000 hryvnia for undervaluing batteries

Establishing the fact of undervaluation of goods

The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv delivered a verdict against Shaghen Andrushovych Markosyan, the director of LLC "MAKSGRAND". He was found guilty of violating customs rules, specifically for submitting false documents to customs control authorities during the import of car batteries. For this violation, the court imposed a penalty in the form of a fine of almost 820,000 hryvnia.

How the document scheme worked

Details of case No. 761/23158/26 became known through a publication describing an investigation conducted by the Coordination and Monitoring Customs. It was this service that identified document manipulation during the import of goods into Ukraine.

According to the case materials, Markosyan organised a shipment from Turkey consisting of 1,140 car batteries with a total weight of 22,620 kg. For customs clearance at a control point in Odesa Oblast, the company director submitted a declaration and an invoice from a Bulgarian seller. These documents recorded the value of the goods at $35,939.35, equivalent to 1,314,000.13 hryvnia.

Verification of original export documents

However, the Ukrainian customs service issued an international request to Turkish customs authorities. As a result, they received the original export documents and a transit declaration. These papers indicated a different, significantly higher value: the actual price of the batch under EXW Antalya delivery terms was $44,852.30, or 1,639,871.85 hryvnia.

Thus, the difference between the declared and actual value amounted to approximately $9,000. The court concluded that the company director intentionally provided false information to customs officials with the aim of undervaluing the goods.

Court decision and fine amount

On 19 October 2026, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of the city of Kyiv issued a ruling in case No. 761/23158/26. Shaghen Markosyan was found guilty under Part 1 of Article 483 of the Customs Code of Ukraine. This article provides for liability for moving goods across the customs border by concealing them from customs control through the submission of documents containing false information necessary for determining the customs value.

The court imposed a penalty in the form of a fine of 50% of the value of the goods, amounting to 819,935.93 hryvnia. Confiscation of the batteries was not applied, as the goods had already been released into free circulation. Additionally, 605.60 hryvnia in court fees were recovered from the defendant.