The trail leads to Sheiman. BIC uncovers schemes to evade sanctions on fertiliser and luxury car sales

Both schemes are connected by the Cypriot company Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD and are linked to the Presidential Affairs Department of Belarus.

A European company assists Belaruskali in the export of sanctioned fertilisers. However, the only European element it contains is that of being registered in Cyprus. The company is owned by a native of Eastern Ukraine. The CFO is a former Belarusian official. Evidence gathered by BIC suggests that Viktar Sheiman, Aleksandr Lukashenko’s closest associate, is likely linked to this scheme, making money by inflating the transportation and expedition cost for the state-owned potash producer. In the course of this investigation, we have also uncovered another crime to which he may be linked – the illegal re-export of premium cars from Ukraine to Russia.

The piece was produced in collaboration with Rabochy Ruh, Belsat TV, RFE/RL Ukraine’s Schemes project, OCCRP, CIReN and with support from CyberPartisans.

Following the 2020 crackdown on protesters against election fraud in Belarus and subsequent assistance by Minsk to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, EU and US introduced sanctions against Belarusian potash and the company Belaruskali – the country’s state owned potash producing monopoly.

It is still possible for Belarus to export potash to countries like China, Brazil or Indonesia, who were its top clients before the sanctions as well. However the country had to re-route its logistics. Instead of going by the shortest route via the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda, which was the case before sanctions, Belarusian potash is now exported via Russia – a longer and more expensive route.

The UN expressed concern about the worsened logistics of Belarusian potash supplies to countries facing food shortages.  However, a BIC investigation showed that a significant part of the costs might be due to schemes with signs of corruption rather than the consequences of sanctions.

$35 million lost in transaction

The Great Port of St Petersburg in Russia is now one of the main export windows for Belarus’ potash exports. Belaruskali uses the services of four terminals there. One of them, named Baltic Ship Mechanical Plant (BSMP) has been specially reconstructed to accommodate Belarusian potash and tranships about a third of its exports. Transshipment involves the transfer of goods from one mode of transportation to another.

According to open financials of BSMP it increased its turnover over 30 times in 2023 – to $35 million, compared to just over $1 million in the three years prior to that. [*] Russian press attributed this increase to the start of Belarusian potash shipments via this terminal.

Reportedly, in 2023 BSMP handled about two million tonnes of Belarusian potash. In fact, the amount was larger, over three million tonnes, according to documents we have obtained from sources in the shipping industry.

Prices for transhipment in the St Petersburg port in 2021 and 2024 that we managed to obtain slightly vary around the figure of $11 per metric ton of potash. Judging from this figure BSMP’s turnover of $33 million in 2023 reflects transhipment of about 3 million tons at market prices. This is roughly consistent with the company’s revenue for last year as we see it in open sources: $35 million.

However, a contract, signed by Belaruskali for transhipment via BSMP, shows that the Belarus’ state owned potash monopoly paid double that amount, almost $70 mln.

BIC found that instead of paying BSMP directly for the service of transferring cargo from trains to ships, Belaruskali signed a contract for this service with a Cypriot company, Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD, at a price almost double the market price – $20 per tonne. The Cypriot company then entered into a separate contract with the Port, acting in its own name, and paid it for the work done at the going rate.

Payment was made in installments. In June 2023, Belaruskali and Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD entered into an agreement for an advance payment for July and August. This was followed by similar agreements for September and subsequent months.

The agreement specifies that Belarusian potash is intended for export outside the Customs Union. Documents obtained by BIC show that in 2023 it was bound for China, Indonesia and Brazil from Russian ports. The documents list Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD as a freight forwarder.

It is our understanding that the services of Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD were not required. The port itself carries out transshipment, and it owns cranes, equipment and warehouses. This information was provided by Port-Express transportation company to the BIC. Furthermore, this information has been corroborated by the St. Petersburg port terminal Port Bronka.

At the same time, a contract with a freight forwarder can be beneficial to the client, according to Nadezhda Malysheva, development director at the PortNews information agency.

“A freight forwarder may offer a discount for transshipment and loading at the port. The freight forwarder may also have a contract with the port to load a specific volume on a regular basis”.

However, this hardly applies to the Belarusian potash giant’s cooperation with BSMP. Belaruskali is already the terminal’s main customer and does not need discounts from the middleman. Our investigation has shown that this scheme may have been organised to divert funds from the domestic monopoly producer of potash fertiliser to the benefit of Aleksandr Lukashenko’s proxies.

Sheiman’s “Vector”

Evidence gathered by BIC suggests that Viktar Sheiman, one of Aleksandr Lukashenko’s closest associates, may be linked to the Cypriot straw firm, which receives half of the amount specified in the contract with Belaruskali.

He became a confidant of Lukashenko’s even before the latter was elected president and went on to hold key positions in the country. Sheiman is sanctioned by the EU for having been responsible for the unsolved disappearances of Lukashenko’s political opponents.

Viktar Sheiman has been the subject of BIC investigations before. 

Source: BIC / Viktar Sheiman

Formally, Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD has been owned by Galina Akritova Alexandrou, a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus, since its foundation in 2012. In addition, she serves as a director for the company. However, it was not Akritova who concluded the agreement with Belaruskali. [*] [*]

The agreement on fertiliser transshipment in the port of St Petersburg was signed by I.I. Golovaty, General Director of Belaruskali, and A.G. Svirydau, Financial Director of Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD. A man named Andrei Svirydau was the deputy head of the Belarusian Department of Presidential Affairs in 2019-2021. The head of the agency at that time was Viktar Sheiman.

Source: BIC / Andrei Svirydau, Ivan Golovaty, Viktar Sheiman

We found confirmation that Svirydau, the financial director of the Cyprus company, and Svirydau, the official, are the same person. There’s a document on the Presidential Affairs Department website bearing the signature of Sheiman’s deputy. It’s the same as the one on the contract between Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD and Belaruskali.

Svirydau himself admitted to the BIC journalist that he was the financial director of Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD, but he had not signed any documents with Belaruskali.

“You know, there are a lot of neuronets out there now, so you don’t have such evidence”, he stated.

Andrei Svirydau was formally relieved of his duties as Deputy Head of Presidential Affairs Department on 19 February 2021, “due to a transfer to another appointment”. Just under a month later, on 11 March of the same year, he was appointed as the head of ZAO Vector Capital Group. In February 2024, he was replaced as director by another former officer connected with Viktar Sheiman, Mikalai Selivanau, former first deputy head of Presidential Affairs Department. He occupied the position from February 2013 until September 2022. [*] [*]

Information obtained by the BIC from CyberPartisans indicates that Svirydau continued to work at Vector Capital Group even after leaving his position as its head. Also, in addition to Svirydau and Selivanau, two other former officials from the Presidential Affairs Department – Dzmitry Petrashevich and Uladzimir Skulavets – were employed there in 2023.

The company specialises in “parent organisation operations”, i.e. the supervision and management of other legal entities within a given structure. [*]

The link between Vector Capital Group and Viktar Sheiman is also evident in the investigation by the Association of Former Law Enforcement Officials of Belarus (BELPOL) into the undervalued resale of a plot of land in Sochi owned by the Republic of Belarus to the Russian company Complex-Invest. The investigation revealed a letter printed on Vector Capital Group letterhead form and signed by Selivanau, addressed to the director of Complex-Invest. The former first deputy head of Lukashenko’s affairs department refers to their “head”, whom he calls “V.V.Sh.” (the initials of Viktar Vladimirovich Sheiman). BELPOL also presented the Complex-Invest staff schedule, which bears the signatures of the former head of Lukashenko’s management department next to the resolution “Approved, V.V. Sheiman” and Selivanau under the words “Concurred by”.

Luxury cars for Russia Today

While investigating the activities of Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD, we discovered that this company had attracted the attention of law enforcement authorities in Ukraine.

In early May 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) announced the dismantling of a significant scheme to illegally supply sanctioned premium cars to Russia. The SSU has reported that a businessman from Lviv illegally transported 45 cars worth more than €3 million to the Russian Federation between August 2022 and March 2023. He purchased premium vehicles from Ukrainian car dealerships and registered them to business structures under his control. He then transported them through the territory of the European Union to Belarus and from there to the Russian Federation using false documents.

Customers for the cars included Gazprom executives and Russia Today employees.

Law enforcement officials did not name the organiser of the scheme, but Ukrainian media, quoting their sources, reported that the Lviv businessman was Vitalii Bobyr. He is also named as the organiser in the criminal case files. Bobyr managed to evade the investigation. Ukraine has put him on the wanted list.

Source: BIC / Vitalii Bobyr

In March 2023, in this criminal case, a court in Kyiv took possession of property found during a search, which included documents, equipment and seals belonging to over 20 Ukrainian companies, two Cypriot entities (Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD and Rostumel Holding Limited) and one Belarusian company (OOO Bel-Bitfinder).

Furthermore, the Ukrainian law enforcement authorities have discovered evidence indicating that the suspect is linked to a representative of the Belarusian authorities. In text messages on one confiscated phone, Bobyr claims to be cronies with a high-ranking Belarusian official (hereafter quotes are left unedited for spelling or grammar).

“...when it comes to the political Issue, they don’t know that my crony is the second man in Belarus and can vouch for me. He called Yanukovych to vouch for me back in the day”.

Exclusive scrap supplier

Vitalii Bobyr does not mention the name of his Belarusian patron, but there are a number of indirect links between him and Viktar Sheiman. The second man in Belarus, as the media call him, is the former head of Lukashenko’s affairs department. The connection to Sheiman is also traceable through his affiliates.

For example, Tatsiana Anoshka was the manager of OOO Globalcustom, a company with links to Viktar Sheiman, from 2019 to 2020.

From 2011 to 2016, Ms Anoshka worked for OOO Belferumgroup. According to the Road Traffic Police records, she held the position of CFO. This company was incorporated in April 2011. A month and a half later, Aleksandr Lukashenko issued a personal decree granting the company the exclusive right to collect, purchase, process and supply ferrous and non-ferrous metal scrap and waste in Belarus.

Two companies founded OOO Belferumgroup. The first is a limited liability partnership called Luxberg. The second is the Ukrainian limited liability partnership Scholz Utilizator AG. The company’s seals were found by Ukrainian law enforcement during a search in a criminal case involving the illegal export of luxury cars from Ukraine to Russia. Its founder and owner is Iryna Bobyr. She is the mother of a Lviv businessman suspected of organising the scheme. 

Viktar Sheiman’s associates could gain access to Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD through Scholz Utilizator AG, a company associated with Vitalii Bobyr. In 2017, TOO Scholz Utilizator AG, with the assistance of the Cypriot company, supplied steel bars from Ukraine to Germany.

Belarus link to the re-export of cars

A source with knowledge of the situation has informed BIC on condition of anonymity that Ukrainian investigators believe that a Lviv businessman was the author of the illicit scheme to supply premium cars to Russia. However, several facts suggest that its real organisers are based in Minsk.

The same source confirmed that the main suspect in this criminal case is Vitalii Bobyr. According to these sources, companies linked to the Lviv businessman bought luxury cars from Ukrainian car dealers and then resold them to Cyprus-based Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD and Rostumel Holding Limited. They were then bought up by the Belarusian company Bel-Bitfinder and transported to the final buyers in Russia.

BIC also obtained a number of documents implicating Andrei Svirydau in this illegal scheme. During searches in the offices of companies linked to Bobyr, Ukrainian law enforcement authorities found, among other things, a blank contract form for the sale of an Audi SQ8 car worth more than €75,000 to Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD. The bank details of the Cypriot company included Paritetbank in Belarus.

We have received a Svirydau’s passport photo and two powers of attorney in his name, signed by the head of Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD, from sources in Ukraine. The first one is dated 1 September 2022. The document authorises the former deputy head of Lukashenko’s presidential affairs department to carry out any transactions on behalf of Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD, with no limitation on the amount. It also grants him the right to act as the company’s representative, including the submission of applications and documents, and the negotiation of contracts on behalf of the company. The second power of attorney, dated 1 December 2022, is supplemented with two additional clauses, which allow Svirydau to open bank accounts for Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD and dispose of the funds therein.

According to Svirydau, these documents are fake.

“There was no power of attorney. It’s probably just smoke and mirrors. You probably set it up deliberately to make a big deal about it, to boost your statistics”, he said to a BIC journalist.

The former deputy head of Lukashenko’s presidential affairs department has also suggested that the documents were forged by Ukrainian law enforcement officials with the intention of discrediting him.

As BIC has demonstrated above, Andrei Svirydau is not merely a former high-ranking official; he remains engaged in activities associated with Viktar Sheiman.

The relationship between the Belarusian authorities and OOO Bel-Bitfinder, which purchased luxury vehicles from Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD and Rostumel Holding Limited, is also worthy of note.

Elizabeth Baker