Russian Woman in Tax Scandal At Tema

By Kofi Yeboah

Intelligence picked by The Herald has revealed some shocking underhand dealings involving a fishing company at the Tema Fishing Habour called Free Fisheries Ghana Limited, owned by Olga Popova, a Russian lady.

It evaded tax by under declaring its imports to Ghana and also managed to siphon hundreds of thousands of United States dollars from Ghana to Russia for the past two years that the company has been in operation in the country, on the blind side of Ghana’s tax agencies.

Ms. Popova’s company had been operating in the country for the past two years, and had succeeded in breaking both the tax and the immigration laws of Ghana, with the massive connivance of some Ghanaian collaborators, including a top Member of Parliament (MP) and an aspiring MP.

Beside under declaring the correct quantity of the fish imports brought into the country to avoid payments of the right tax, Olga Popova has sneaked into Ghana five other Russians who live and work here without both a resident permit and a work permit, a situation highly frowned upon by the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).

The illegal Russian immigrants, Igor Sminorv, who serves as cashier for the company, Oleg and Sergey, both storekeepers of the company and one other called Alex, are all currently putting up in Avril Hotel in Tema.

Reports say that,while Olga Popova, is constantly on the move, the others stay on to run the company. They only travel out of Ghana occasionally to Russia to get their visas renewed and get back into the country. They have been in Ghana since October last year.

Insiders have revealed to The Herald that the company runs three separate bank accounts at Prudential Bank and Stanbic Bank, both at the Tema Fishing Habour, and a third account with the Airport Branch of the Barclays Bank Ghana Limited, from where hundreds of thousands of United States dollars are siphoned out of this country to Europe.

Among other things, The Herald has leant also that even though Free Fisheries Ghana Limited is registered with the VAT Service, it does not issue VAT invoice to its customers, short-changing Ghana’s tax laws further.

The under -declaration of the quantity of fish is being done with the convince of a clearing company called Teamwork Freight Forwarding Services also located in Tema, and owned by one Kofi Brako, a major financier of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), with a very interesting tax record himself.

The fishes are brought into the country by Kuda Services Shipping Agency.

The company has a workforce of ten people, a Ghanaian director called Kate Ansah, and a Commercial Manager Yakubu Barry and another Russian non-resident director.

Tax evasion in Russia is a huge crime against the state which attracts one of the harshest prison terms as punishment in all Europe. Some of the richest men in Russia are currently in jail over tax-evasion.

It is, however, uncertain in the case of Ghana, whether both Customs Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) are aware of this information, and what they plan to do. More to Come