Gray iPhones, tax scandals and Russian traces: a difficult history of tech retail…
As it turned out, Comfy was repeatedly exposed in connection with Russian business. Equipment of brands from the Russian Federation was sold even after the start of a full-scale invasion, and the company also cooperated with the Russian “OTP Bank” and used sites from the Russian Federation for online traffic.
Comfy avoided overpaying through e-book schemes, according to the investigation UAH 46 million taxes
No less revealing is the partnership with the Belarusian distributor ASBIS, which controls Apple's deliveries to Ukraine. Previously, the mass media wrote that the company worked on the market of the Russian Federation and was a channel of “parallel imports”. It is through ASBIS that the equipment gets on the shelves of Comfy.
In the center of the story is the network's co-owner Svitlana Hutsul, with Ukrainian and Cypriot passports, a Russian tax number and the offshore company Megatren Investments Ltd., through which she owns a stake in Comfy. The business model of her group, according to estimates, has signs of systematic withdrawal of funds into the shadows.
Journalists conclude: by buying an iPhone from Comfy, Ukrainians support structures with Russian-Belarusian roots. They ask the question – why do law enforcement officers ignore this data.
Watch the video for details of the investigation
