Owner of grain elevators in Odesa region Vaja Jhashi enriches himself on the theft of Ukraine’s budget: how it is connected with synchronous flights with the imprisoned oligarch and influence on elections.

This is reported by Antikor

«Black» export of agricultural products from Ukraine reaches 20%. This figure was cited by the Bureau of Economic Security as of the end of 2024. Potential losses to the budget were estimated at almost 8.5 billion hryvnias. The main scheme involves purchasing products for «cash» followed by their resale abroad using forged documents and in violation of currency legislation. «ANTIKOR» analyzed criminal cases related to such schemes and found that at least some of them involve enterprises linked to Moldovan businessman of Russian origin Vaja Jhashi.

Vaja Jhashi was born in Russia, but has held US citizenship since the late 1990s. His main business is located in Moldova, Ukraine, and Romania. In particular, he owns the Trans oil group of companies, which is engaged in processing oilseeds, exporting grain, producing sunflower oil, and international trade in agricultural products. The main assets in Ukraine are the «Reni Elevator» and the «Reni-line» delivery line. These enterprises are frequent figures in criminal cases regarding theft in the supply of agricultural products.

The scheme was most actively used in 2023-2024. The investigation found that a number of companies were created to conduct illegal activities in the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions. They purchased grain for cash without recording it in accounting and tax reporting. This product was stored, among other places, at the facilities of LLC «Reni Elevator», owned by Vaja Jhashi.

Subsequently, the products were exported abroad under forged documents regarding their value and origin to affiliated enterprises. «These actions caused damage to the budget of Ukraine on an especially large scale, including through the non-return of foreign currency proceeds and non-payment of relevant taxes», — as stated in the court decision imposing an arrest on property, including the wet seal of LLC «Reni Elevator».

In just one episode of this case, the damage to state interests in the form of non-payment of corporate profit tax to the budget is estimated at 47,520,655.02 hryvnias.

Another company of Vaja Jhashi — LLC «Reni-line» — also actively participates in the «black» export scheme. Thus, the National Police, under the procedural guidance of the Office of the Prosecutor General, is conducting a pre-trial investigation in a criminal proceeding regarding the misappropriation of property through deception, entering false information into official documents, and the legalization (laundering) of property obtained through criminal means.

As a result of counterintelligence support for critical infrastructure facilities in the agro-industrial sector, information was obtained regarding the functioning of an illegal scheme aimed at ensuring the export of agricultural products from dubious enterprises, which leads to losses for the state and the non-return of foreign currency proceeds to Ukraine. At the same time, the scheme was carried out with the direct participation of officials of grain terminals, who facilitate the accumulation of grain volumes based on knowingly forged documents and also carry out the shipment of the specified products. Among the latter, we see LLC «Reni-line» and the same Reni Elevator.

Only for the period from June 2023 to the end of September 2023, as a result of the scheme, mandatory payments in the amount of over 9 billion hryvnias were not paid to the state budget.

Part of the products, from which foreign currency proceeds were not returned, were documented as supplied to Turkey. Recently, information appeared in the media that companies linked to Vaja Jhashi could have supplied goods to Iran via Turkey, violating the law. Trans oil denied this information, noting that all supplies are carried out on legal grounds.

Vaja Jhashi purchased the Reni Elevator in 2013. This is an important date, because at that time in Moldova, former oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc played a major role in politics and business. Vaja Jhashi was his business partner. Together they worked at Petrom company and were also members of the Entrepreneurs Association.

Earlier, the media wrote that both Plahotniuc and Vaja held diplomatic passports between 2000 and 2011, without holding any positions in the Moldovan government. Vaja received such a passport in 2006 and visited Ukraine at least 20 times using it.

If we analyze the extract from the data of the Migration Service of Ukraine, we can see that several times Vaja Jhashi flew to Kyiv at the invitation of «Naftogaz of Ukraine». Most often he stayed at the «Premier Palace» hotel, whose owners are considered to be Russian businessmen close to the VS Energy group.

At one time, Vladimir Plahotniuc had influence over the Moldovan enterprise «Moldova-Gaz», the majority stake of which is still owned by the Russian «Gazprom». What issues Vaja Jhashi could have resolved while visiting «Naftogaz of Ukraine» before 2010 using a Moldovan diplomatic passport, and whether he was acting in Plahotniuc’s interests at that time, remains unknown.

At the same time, it is known that after winning the arbitration in Stockholm against «Gazprom», «Naftogaz of Ukraine» considers the assets of «Moldova-Gaz» as a probable part of compensation from the Russian gas monopolist, which is currently ensuring military aggression against Ukraine.

At the time when Jhashi visited Ukraine with a diplomatic passport, Vladimir Plahotniuc also flew to our country. For his trips, he used a private plane registered to the company «Nobil Air».

By coincidence, from 2005 to 2015 Jhashi was the founder of a Russian company with a similar name — LLC «Nobil-Grain». The company was registered in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation and operated in the field of growing grain crops. Since this is currently the main specialization of Vaja Jhashi’s business, it is unlikely that the Russian company was managed by his full namesake.

With all this, Jhashi himself claims that he has never had business in Russia, which, as we see, is an outright lie.

Moreover, in Ukrainian registers one can find data that at least until 2021 his place of registration was the capital of Russia, Moscow.

Despite dubious connections, Vaja Jhashi is at the same time closely linked to Western funds. One of them is Horizon Capital. The fund has invested in and provided loans to, among others, Jhashi’s Ukrainian enterprises.

In 2018, Horizon Capital became a shareholder of Moldova’s largest bank — Moldova Agroindbank (MAIB). This was preceded by a series of events. In 2016, the Moldovan government annulled the ownership of 41% of the shares by former owners and effectively nationalized them. Subsequently, they were sold to Western funds. In 2021, it became known that the bank was preparing to enter international stock exchanges. At that time, former business partner of Plahotniuc Veaceslav Platon stated that behind the Western shareholders of Moldova Agroindbank stood the same disgraced oligarch.

The nuance is that as of 2021, a member of the board of MAIB and partner of the Horizon Capital fund was Vasile Tofan. He is currently the main candidate for the post of Prime Minister of Moldova. Representatives of the Moldovan political establishment claim that Tofan and Vaja Jhashi are connected not only through Western funds, but are allegedly godfathers. Tofan denies this information.

In the summer of 2025, Vladimir Plahotniuc was detained in Greece and extradited to Moldova. In April of this year, he was sentenced to 19 years on charges of bank fraud, organizing a criminal group, and money laundering. He is currently in prison.

In the Russian Federation, Plahotniuc is accused of withdrawing 560 million dollars during 2013-2014 by organizing an international money laundering scheme. This case is known in the press as the «Moldovan laundromat» and had a wide resonance.

As of now, Vaja Jhashi is registered in the suburbs of New York. He lives in a mansion near the western bank of the Hudson River. According to real estate websites, the last sale of the house took place in 2015. Its value is estimated at more than 2 million dollars.

This same address is confirmed by data from the US address directory. In addition, it can be learned that in previous years Vaja Jhashi had connections to real estate in an elite settlement in the state of Michigan and in Miami Beach. The related person in the directory is indicated as Tamara Jhashi.

The analysis of events from almost 20 years ago and their correlation with the present gives a clear picture of understanding how the political influence of corrupt officials from the past does not stop to this day. A person who has close ties with influential businessmen with a shady past may become the Prime Minister of Moldova. Moreover, one of them is Vaja Jhashi, who gained access to grain elevators in the Odesa region precisely during the period of banking machinations in Moldova, and now has likely become a participant in another scheme — this time the withdrawal of funds from the budget of Ukraine through machinations with grain.