As the prosecutors state, the importers paying bribed tax officials for a blind eye to a smuggling scheme of trading cars and dodging customs payments.

Myroslav Prodan, the then head of the Vinnytsia tax office, was allegedly connected to the smuggling scheme. He later became the deputy head of Ukraine’s State Fiscal Service.

The investigation came nowhere because of the offshore companies registered in the Seychelles and their secrecy policy.

The new Pandora Papers data sheds light on the car smuggling scheme and Prodan’s involvement in it.

The Pandora Papers leak has proved the offshore companies were owned by Vitalii Astakhov, a banker who allegedly helped Prodan to launder money in Turkey.

Prodan does not want to contact the journalists and his former lawyer, Oleksandr Arhipov, says his client denies any illegal operations.

The Security Service of Ukraine is now investigating into the case of one of Astakhov’s companies.