This article was prepared in cooperation with the Hungarian investigative center Atlatszo.hu, with the support of OCCRP and CyberPartisans.

From bananas to sulfur

The European company covered by previous BIC investigations is now being dissolved. We discovered that PS Commodities Kft, registered in Hungary, is owned by Belarusian businessman Victor Chevtsov. [*] [*]

In early September 2024, the Budapest Central District Court decided to suspend the company's activities because its owner was included in the EU sanctions list. [*]

"If the Court becomes aware that a company or its member is subject to international financial or property restrictive measures, then the Court shall suspend the company's activities", the decision says.

In 2023, PS Commodities Kft's revenue amounted to nearly €850 thousand. [*]  A year earlier, it was around €650 thousand. The company website says it sells bananas from Ecuador and Colombia, as well as fertilizers, chemicals, and rubber products. The company also calls itself a distributor of Hungarian MOL motor oils. At the same time, in response to a request from our partners from the Hungarian publication Átlátszó, the manufacturing company said that they do not cooperate with Chevtsov’s company.

PS Commodities Kft is registered in a house owned by the company of a Hungarian national, Krisztina Simon. [*] [*] [*]

She ran a state program for issuing permanent residence permits for investment. Hungarian authorities suspended it in 2017 following a public slam on the scheme's lack of transparency. The Russian Novaya Gazeta and Hungarian journalists found out that the list of recipients of the "golden residence permits" included influential Russians, such as family members of the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin. 

Victor Chevtsov is further connected to Krisztina Shimon by another property of the Hungarian woman – one more house is listed in the Hungarian business register as a correspondence address for the Belarusian businessman. [* [*] [*]

Saving the assets

The EU and Switzerland sanctioned Chevtsov in August 2024, three months following the release of the BIC investigation into the monopoly on security hologram production in Belarus. We found out he was one of the primary beneficiaries of this business. In another investigation, we proved that Chevtsov is involved with the company that was supposed to print the passports of "New Belarus". The BIC has learned that the businessman is close to the Belarusian authorities: in 2008-2013 alone, we counted three dozen trips on which Chevtsov accompanied officials and other associates of Aleksandr Lukashenko. He is also known as a go-between for the Belarusian state in deals with authoritarian regimes such as Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Hugo Chávez's Venezuela. 

Victor Chevtsov is trying to challenge the sanctions imposed against him. We found the registered case "Chevtsov v. Council" on the European Union Court of Justice website. He is also trying to protect his Belarusian business. For example, in August 2024, there was a founder change in the documents of one of his main assets, UP Tekhnokhimtreid. [*] [*]

Maksim Lapikau now owns the company. He can be dubbed as Chevtsov's man: since 2019, he has been managing another Chevtsov company, the Museum Complex of Ancient Folk Crafts and Technologies Dudutki, where he previously worked as a driver. [*] [*] [*] [*]

The BIC asked Victor Chevtsov and Krisztina Shimon to comment on the above facts. We have not received a response at the time of publication. We also contacted the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Administration for comment on the reasons for the dissolution of PS Commodities Kft. The agency refused to provide any information, citing tax secrecy.