Deadly excise

The entrepreneur was waylaid at the customs gate

One of the most notorious entrepreneurs in customs circles, Viktor Kibza, was shot yesterday afternoon in Moscow, on Yauzskaya Street, right at the gates of the Central Excise Customs. This man, who owned and managed a number of large enterprises specializing in customs clearance of goods, was known as a close acquaintance of several chairmen of the State Customs Committee. Mr. Kibza started his business under Anatoly Kruglov, and recently, according to open sources, he was allegedly a confidant of the current head of the State Customs Committee, Mikhail Vanin. The crime caused a stir in all the capital's special services, and, remarkably, Mikhail Vanin himself came to the scene of the murder.

Victor Kibza became famous back in the late 90s, during the memorable information wars between the oligarchs. In exposés about the abuses of customs officials, he appeared as their closest business partner. It was alleged that JSC Jutland, which belonged to Mr. Kibza, was a structure that was “supervised” by several generals of the State Customs Committee. Thanks to this, the company quickly gained weight and became one of the largest operators in the customs market. First of all, Jutland specialized in excise, most popular and crime-prone cargo - alcohol, tobacco, electronics, etc. Jutland JSC also found its way into the operational developments of the special services. At different times, representatives of the FSB and the Main Directorate for Economic Crimes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were involved in the activities of this company. The last such high-profile scandal occurred a year and a half ago, when police found in a temporary storage warehouse owned by Jutland a huge number of counterfeit forms from the Central Excise Customs, details of front companies, already completed customs declarations, etc. According to the GUBEP, illegal customs clearance of goods was carried out at the warehouse, a significant part of which was supplied to Mr. Kibza’s companies, in particular to Trakt-M. However, these investigations did not cause any serious consequences, which competitors openly associated with the special relationship between the entrepreneur and the customs authorities. However, according to unofficial data, friendly connections in the State Customs Committee did not save Mr. Kibza from conflicts with criminal groups. Allegedly, several years ago, after investigators seized a large shipment of smuggled electronics from a warehouse, the entrepreneur, owing huge sums of money, hid for a long time in Spain and Greece.

Recently, Mr. Kibza, having abandoned the Jutlanda brand (obviously already compromised), transferred his business to Suvenirtrans LLC. It was as the director of this company that he arrived yesterday afternoon on business at the office of the Central Excise Customs on Yauzskaya Street, 6. At about 15.00, Mr. Kibza came out of the customs gates and was already getting into the Mercedes jeep that was waiting for him, when a young man in wearing a black mask cap and holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle in his hands. The weapon had a silencer, and passersby not only did not hear the shots, but did not even understand what happened. The businessman was killed on the spot, and his seriously wounded security guard managed to call the police and doctors. The investigation yesterday did not put forward specific versions of this assassination attempt, but admitted that it was directly related to the business of Victor Kibza, as evidenced by the criminals’ excellent knowledge of the businessman’s daily routine.

Victor PAUKOV