Russian oligarch sells stolen Ukrainian grain to Egypt
23.10.2024 - 14:04
The illegal export of stolen grain from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine is carried out through a shell company in Oman.
Another scheme of theft of Ukrainian grain from occupied Sevastopol became known. This is stated in the investigation of Kateryna Yaresko for “Peacemaker”.
The bulk carrier Princess Eva under the flag of Cameroon loaded wheat in Komysheva Bay of Sevastopol. Already on October 11, the vessel with AIS turned off went to the Egyptian port of Abu Kir, where it was received on October 21.
The contract for the delivery of the cargo is valued at 1.76 million dollars, which is significantly below the market price. According to the investigation, the grain that was loaded on Princess Eva was illegally collected from the occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as from Crimea.
The vessel was previously registered under the name Jasmin Queen, a common tactic to hide the true owners and managers of the vessels. The ship is indicated in the reports as a permanent guest of Ukrainian Danube ports in 2022-2023.
In the wheat documents, the sender is the Moscow company Terra Trade, and the recipient is the Egyptian Adamz Grain, acting on behalf of the Omani Gulf & Eastern Food Trading.
According to the investigation, the Omani company was registered in June 2024 and is owned by Russian businessman Vladimir Palikhati. Thus, the oligarch is a key figure in the export of stolen Ukrainian grain, using an Omani company to legalize transactions.
The day before, USM wrote that the ship on which stolen Ukrainian grain is being transported again went to the Yemeni Houthis.
