Belarus’s Financial Investigations Department Raids Butikavto Car Dealership Network; Company Owner Detained — Nasha Niva
Reform.news Editorial Team · 25 October 2026, 17:10
https://reform.news/en/belarus-s-financial-investigations-department-raids-butikavto-car-dealership-network-company-owner-detained-nasha-niva/The owner of Belarusian car dealership network Butikavto, Ivan Liabeyka, has been detained. Officers from the Financial Investigations Department of the State Control Committee searched the company’s offices, Nasha Niva reports, citing its own sources.
According to the publication, security forces conducted searches and made arrests at the offices of Butik-Invest LLC across the country earlier this week. In addition to 37-year-old Liabeyka, who owns the company, other executives were detained. The official reasons for the detentions are not yet known. According to Nasha Niva, possible allegations of tax evasion are among the issues being discussed.
The company was registered in Ivye in 2023. Its first car dealership opened in Lida in April of that year. The network now has 25 locations in 18 Belarusian cities. In June 2026, Butikavto received two certificates from the Belarus Book of Records, recognising it as the country’s largest car dealership network and one of the networks with the fastest sales of used cars.
According to the publication, 287 million Belarusian roubles passed through Butik-Invest’s accounts in 2025, while the company’s profit for the first half of 2026 amounted to 6.6 million roubles. It employs more than 100 people.
The network’s business model combines car sales with credit and leasing finance. Its dealerships act as intermediaries between private sellers, buyers and financial institutions, earning commissions on transactions.
In 2025, the company also began raising funds to purchase cars independently. Since September of that year, Butik-Invest has issued eight series of debt tokens on the Finstore and BynEX platforms. According to the publication, the total amount raised was about 5.2 million roubles and $1.7 million, and the number of token holders exceeded 2,000.
In the summer of 2026, the company began issuing bonds worth 3 million roubles, but the offering was temporarily suspended. The next payments to investors are scheduled for November 15 and December 1–5.
“It is not known whether Butik-Invest will be able to make these payments with its accounts frozen,” the publication concludes.