Investors in the red, Andrey Verevskiy in the green: How Kernel used shell companies to dodge 1.5 billion hryvnias in taxes

Investors in the red, Andrey Verevskiy in the green: How Kernel used shell companies to dodge 1.5 billion hryvnias in taxes

Tabloids are buzzing – Andriy Verevskyi is once again a billionaire, making it onto the Forbes list in just one day. Shares of "Kernel" soared, pushing its market capitalization above 2 billion dollars. To secure "Annushka has already spilled the oil," Verevskyi had to part ways with investors and impose taxes on Ukraine’s supplies.

Ukraine is the largest supplier of sunflower oil to Europe and one of the leading countries in the international market. The company "Kernel" is the main importer. Until May 2024, Andriy Verevskyi owned only 49% of the company’s shares. Such a reliable producer was supported by the Warsaw Stock Exchange - the shares are reliable, and one can buy them. Deliveries, even amid war, went regularly through dry ports - shares rose in price.

In May 2024, cynical stock carousel schemes began. Andriy Verevskyi, not publicly, through proxy companies, issued 216 million shares of "Kernel." The stock price quickly fell on the Warsaw Stock Exchange from 43 to 1 zloty, nearly to zero. An anticipated stock market panic ensued, with investors massively dumping shares. As a result, Verevskyi purchased the necessary 50% of the shares and became the full owner of "Kernel" and a monopoly on oil supplies.

This is a chat of deceived investment brokers, numbering over 500. Each had a package of at least 100,000 shares.Every day, former shareholders of "Kernel" calculate how much their shares would be worth today, and as of today, they are already worth 23 zlotys, or 243 hryvnias per share. The smallest package bought by Verevskyi is now worth 243 thousand hryvnias, while the shareholders sold it for 23 thousand hryvnias. The investors’ case is now being considered in a court in Luxembourg.While the court is ongoing, Verevskyi’s company continues to load the produced oil through the ports of Odesa and the Odesa region. From May 2024 to March 2025, "Kernel" officially made only 13 oil shipments. This is very suspiciously few for an oil monopoly and one of the leading global suppliers.

Over the year, Ukraine made 153 thousand shipments of sunflower oil by sea. To analyze each shipment, we used the ImportGenius system, which provides data on importers and products and can be considered an official database, even without a bulk carrier entering a US port. This database is primarily used by customs brokers, importers to monitor the supply market of competitors, and company shareholders (such as those tricked by Mr. Verevskyi) to analyze market demand.

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From the southern ports of Ukraine, 750 thousand tons of oil were exported from May 2024 to March 2025, out of which Kernel shipped only 325 tons. Each of the 153 thousand shipments has to be checked manually; it’s tons of information. But this is the only way to identify the so-called "left cargo." Particular attention needs to be paid to suppliers with unknown names or a common word in their names. New players "Yadro-trade" and "Yadro-torg" have appeared in the supply system.As shown in the diagram, each company made only one shipment and then simply disappeared.Of course, one might assume that a new player entered the monopolized market, couldn’t compete with a giant like Kernel, and folded the business. But for both "Yadro-trade" and "Yadro-torg," the registration place is listed as: Kyiv, Taras Shevchenko Lane, 3. At this same address, the Kernel group is registered. A coincidence? We don’t think so...Now let’s break down the payment calculation for the shipment. Official Kernel shipments were paid by billing check, meaning the company’s check. The shipments of "Yadro-trade" and "Yadro-torg" were paid by simple check, meaning card-to-card.To explain port schemes in simple terms, it looks like this: "Add 26 tons of oil to Istanbul; we operate cashless because friends abroad need oil for pies." When the shipment is delivered, the company disappears as if it never existed. There were 215 shipments related to Kernel. 215 shipments of 24-26 tons each, each shipment has its own tax. The tax from shipments by simple check is collected when the cargo is delivered, meaning upon order completion. But here, the companies from which the tax can be collected are annulled, simply disappearing from the port register as if they never existed. Tax cannot be collected from a non-existent company, and the company that actually created the intermediary company like "Yadro-torg" remains in net profit. 215 untaxed shipments amount to approximately 1.5 billion hryvnias.Currently, around 75 thousand tons of sunflower oil are waiting to be loaded at the southern Ukrainian ports. These shipments have already been included in the ImportGenius database, with some already paid by simple check, card-to-card. All these shipments are set to leave the ports by the end of March. So, NABU, BERT, and AMCU still have time to check the companies responsible for the supply. Before they disappear like "Yadro-torg" and "Yadro-trade," and Ukraine once again misses out on a large chunk of customs duty.And for Andriy Verevskyi, it turned out that becoming a Forbes billionaire is as easy as buttering toast; you just need to trick shareholders, become a monopolist, and simply not pay taxes. Then, you can lament in interviews about how hard it is for a simple business to survive in wartime conditions.