Belgian money laundering investigation intersects with probe into Ukraine war profiteering
Belgian prosecutors have seized about $2 million as part of an investigation into Iryna Kut and her diamond company.
In Ukraine, authorities raided her warehouses while investigating a scandal about food sold to the military at inflated prices. Kut has not been charged in either country, and it’s unclear if the cases are connected, reported by occrp.org
Formed in 1893, the Diamond Club of Antwerp “watches over certain moral values in the sector,” and hosts more than 150 companies in its building. Among them is IKG, a firm at the center of a Belgian money laundering investigation.
The jewelry and diamond trading company is owned by a woman from Ukraine named Iryna Kut, who is under investigation “on the possible crime of money laundering.” Belgian prosecutors revealed to reporters that they have seized about 2 million euros ($2.1 million) as part of their investigation. Kut has not been charged.
Separate from the Belgian case, authorities in Ukraine are looking into a company owned by Kut’s mother, as part of a wide-ranging investigation into overpriced food sales to the defense ministry. The firm’s registered address is a warehouse owned by Kut.
The scandal involves a handful of companies that allegedly sold food products to the military at two or three times their market value. The inflated sales took place throughout 2022 and 2023, as Ukraine was fighting to fend off Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Authorities allege Kut’s mother, Tetiana Hlyniana, controlled some of the companies that have come under scrutiny, but neither woman has been named as a formal suspect.
“Mrs. Hlyniana has not been summoned or questioned as a witness, is not listed as a suspect or an accused in these proceedings, and no procedural or restrictive measures have been imposed upon her,” said Hlyniana’s lawyer, Sergii Vasylyshyn.
Through her lawyer, Aurélie Verheylesonne, Kut declined to comment on the money laundering investigation in Belgium, and whether she had any role in the food scandal in Ukraine.
“She is reserving her answers for the judicial authorities in charge of the investigation,” in Belgium, said Verheylesonne.
Yasmina Vanoverschelde, a spokesperson for the Brussels Public Prosecutors’ Office, declined to comment on whether the Belgian investigation has any links to the Ukraine case.
"At this stage of the investigation, it is only directed against I.K. and IKG,” she said, using Kut’s initials and referring to her company.
However, people with knowledge of the cases, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said Ukrainian and Belgian authorities have been in contact about their separate investigations.
Back in Ukraine, the sprawling scandal about overpriced food sold to the military involves multiple criminal investigations by separate law enforcement agencies. And it has already brought down one high-ranking official.
Ukrainian Food
In January 2023, Vyacheslav Shapovalov offered his resignation as deputy defense minister due to public “accusations related to the purchase of catering services.”
In a statement at the time, the Defense Ministry said the allegations were “unfounded and baseless,” but that Shapovalov had “asked to be dismissed in order not to create a threat to the stable provision” of goods to the military.
His resignation came soon after the food scandal broke. Ukrainian authorities continue to probe the scheme, and reporters obtained court orders from ongoing investigations.
Neither Kut’s nor Hlyniana’s names are disclosed in court orders from. However, the files contained enough information to allow reporters to identify the women.
For example, one court order allowed the National Anti-Corruption Bureau to search and seize property. The order refers to an unnamed person who “exercised decisive influence” on companies supplying food to the defense ministry.
The order says this person owned a company called Premium Company LLC between May and December 2022, although the document does not specify whether the company supplied food at that time. Corporate registry documents show that Hlyniana owned the company during that period.
A court order from a different investigation allowed the Bureau of Economic Security to seize property. That order provides addresses of warehouses in Uzyn — a town about 90 kilometers south of the capital, Kyiv — which were allegedly used in the food supply scheme. Property registry records show that Kut co-owns those facilities.
The Bureau is investigating whether companies that allegedly supplied the overpriced food were involved in money laundering and tax evasion. Among those companies is Meat Mix LLC, which is registered at the address of one of Kut’s warehouses that was searched.
In 2019, Kut owned Meat Mix. Hlyniana took ownership in 2021, and left the company in February 2023, right after the Bureau began its investigation.
The Bureau alleged in its court order that Meat Mix conducted illegal transactions with other companies concerning the purchase and supply of meat products. The scheme allegedly "resulted in the state budget losing over 23 million” hryvnia in taxes (about $550,929 at current exchange rates), according to the court ruling.
Hlyniana’s lawyer said his client “is fully committed to cooperating with law enforcement authorities to ensure the establishment of the truth in all relevant criminal proceedings.”
“The versions presented in court (orders) are solely the investigative body’s position at a procedural stage and cannot serve as evidence of our Client’s involvement in any offenses,” he added.
In August, the Bureau of Economic Security announced that it had confiscated 4.7 million euros ($5 million) in cash related to the food investigation, which was found in the trunk of a vehicle. The court ruling shows that Meat Mix’s accountant was in the car.
Ukrainian authorities seized 4.7 million euros from a car carrying an accountant for Meat Mix.
Investigators also searched the company director’s residence, the court ruling shows. They confiscated 2.5 million hryvnia in cash ($59,566), and documentation including an April 2024 invoice from a Croatian company called Nazarii d.o.o.
Along with her mother, Kut owned half of Nazarii from September 2022 to August 2023, according to Croatian corporate documents. Hlyniana then took full ownership of the firm.
Croatian Properties
Nazarii owns the Hotel Mirari in the Croatian coastal city of Split, one of several properties purchased by Hlyniana in the Balkan country.
Property registry documents show that, between March 2016 and January 2024, Hlyniana spent almost 26 million euros ($27 million at current exchange rates) on real estate, including two more hotels in Split. Most properties were bought in 2023, the same year investigations into the food scandal began in Ukraine.
The hotel Mirari in Split, Croatia.
In January 2024, after a Ukrainian media outlet reported on Hlyniana’s Croatian properties, she transferred most of them to a man named Dijan Jahjefendić. Aside from Nazarii, he now owns three other companies formed by Hlyniana, Croatian corporate documents show.
But the contracts obtained by reporters show that the deal has a twist: Jahjefendić was not required to pay up front for the companies, and they will revert back to Hlyniana’s ownership if he has failed to do so by January 15 .
"Given that it is about millions of dollars, I find this unusual,” said Marin Kuvač, a Croatian lawyer specializing in commercial law. But he added that it was impossible to know the reasons for the arrangement without more details about the sales.
“The justification for such a clause might stem from the overall factual situation,” he said.
Jahjefendić did not reply to emails sent to company addresses, and declined to comment when contacted by the phone.
However, public information available on Jahjefendić’s business background raises the question of how he could afford to purchase the companies. He appears in the corporate registry only as the owner of several now-defunct trading firms.
Meanwhile, Jahjefendić’s company, Nazarii — previously owned by both Hlyniana and Kut — has continued to buy up land in tourist-friendly areas. Corporate records show that in March, the company purchased a plot of land for 1 million euros ($1.1 million) on the coast in Split.
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