The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (PGO) suspects officials of related companies of Nova Poshta Ltd, a leader in express delivery in Ukraine, of non-payment of taxes in especially large amounts, according to Larysa Sarhan, spokeswoman for Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.

"According to the State Fiscal Service and the materials of criminal proceedings, officials of a group of related companies used a criminal scheme aimed at providing services to transfer cashless funds to cash and minimizing tax liabilities of client enterprises by forming a fictitious tax credit and holding transactions not secured with commodities, using forged documents of enterprises with signs of fictitiousness, which led to non-payment of taxes in especially large amounts," the report says.

Sarhan noted that Lutsenko had taken personal control of the investigation of criminal proceedings on the abuse of office by officials of Nova Poshta Ltd and other related enterprises on the grounds of criminal offenses envisaged in Part 2, Article 364, Part 3, Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

She also added that this week the prosecutor general would hear the materials of the proceedings in the presence of lawyers for Nova Poshta representatives.

"If there is no evidence of violation of the law by officials of Nova Poshta Ltd, criminal proceedings will be closed," Sarhan said.

On March 16, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine conducted searches in Nova Poshta's offices in Kyiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, and Dnipro.