State Control Committee Uncovers Scheme to Purchase Agricultural Products From ‘Dead Souls’ in Homiel Region

The State Control Committee has uncovered an illegal intermediary scheme involving the purchase of agricultural products from the public in the Homiel region. Five criminal cases have been opened. The amount of unpaid taxes is estimated at more than 3.3 million Belarusian rubles.

According to the State Control Committee, one of the functions of Belkaapsayuz organizations is to purchase fruit, berries, mushrooms and herbs from members of the public. For this purpose, procurement officers are provided with substantial amounts of cash. At one consumer cooperative organization, procurement officers colluded with commercial companies operating state reserve storage facilities, which purchased the produce on their behalf.

The procurement officers entered false information into their records, claiming they had purchased produce from members of the public. The documents included, among others, minors and deceased individuals. Between 2023 and 2026, more than 2,000 “dead souls” were entered into the records, allegedly receiving more than 10 million Belarusian rubles in payments.

In reality, the agricultural products were purchased by three commercial companies. Procurement officers from the consumer cooperative organizations directly handed over the cash intended for payments to citizens to officials of those companies. The businesses then bought fruit and vegetable products from resellers and farmers at wholesale markets in the Brest and Minsk regions.

To create the appearance of legally acquiring the agricultural products, the business owners allegedly bribed officials of the consumer cooperative organization to obtain fraudulent invoices for the purchases, which were then entered into their accounting records.

The products purchased by the commercial companies were then sold directly to public-sector institutions — including schools, hospitals, kindergartens and catering facilities — without passing through Belkaapsayuz warehouses, with markups of up to 23%.

The State Control Committee estimates the amount of unpaid taxes at more than 3.3 million Belarusian rubles. Criminal proceedings have been initiated.