A team of attorneys from Barristers LLC successfully defended a client’s interests in criminal proceedings concerning allegations of a criminal offense under Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

A team of attorneys from Barristers LLC successfully defended the client’s interests in criminal proceedings concerning allegations of a criminal offense under Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The pretrial investigation focused on the circumstances of tax evasion resulting from the sale of real estate by an individual who was not registered as a sole proprietor.

In the notice of suspicion, the pre-trial investigation authority alleged that the client, acting in violation of paragraph 177.1 of Article 177 and paragraph 167.1 of Article 167 of the Tax Code of Ukraine, by paying taxes at a rate of 5% instead of 18%, the client evaded taxes on the income of individual entrepreneurs resulting from business activities involving the sale of real estate within the scope of economic activity, which led to a loss of tax revenue to the budget in the amount of over 13 million UAH.

In the course of providing legal assistance, at the initiative of the attorneys, a number of documents were obtained to confirm the absence of a criminal offense in the client’s actions, including: an audit report on the client’s financial and business activities as an individual entrepreneur; a forensic economic expert opinion confirming the aforementioned audit report; a scientific and legal expert opinion on the interpretation of specific provisions of the law; and responses from regulatory authorities confirming the absence of tax arrears.

As a result of the legal position formulated by the team, the investigating judge completely denied the application of a preventive measure in the form of bail against the client. The amount of bail specified by the prosecution in its motion was to exceed 13 million UAH.

Based on the evidence gathered as described above, the attorneys successfully challenged the notice of suspicion.

Following the investigative judge’s decision to overturn the notice of suspicion, the investigator in the criminal proceedings issued a ruling to dismiss the criminal case against the client due to the established absence of the elements of a criminal offense under Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Subsequently, following the closure of the criminal proceedings, the defense team filed a motion to lift the seizure of more than 20 real estate properties. As a result of the court proceedings, the seizure of the property was lifted in its entirety.