Customs officials in Kyiv have foiled an attempt to illegally export currency from Ukraine to Canada amounting to over 1.67 million hryvnias.
The international postal shipment heading to Canada immediately raised suspicions among customs officers due to a baffling declaration: «sample/18/1.5/17 US dollars».
During the customs inspection, the true contents of the package were revealed.
Inside, there were metal bowls, medicinal substances, and several packages of chocolate products. However, the real «treasure» was hidden among them — 35,100 US dollars and 7,350 Canadian dollars. Converted at the NBU exchange rate on the day of shipment, this totals 1,675,925 hryvnias.
This is one of the largest sums discovered in international postal shipments recently.
According to Article 18 of the Universal Postal Convention, it is prohibited to include coins, banknotes, and other valuable items in international postal shipments without declared value unless permitted by the national legislation of the sending and receiving countries.
Thus, the Kyiv customs agency issued a protocol for a customs violation under Article 473 of the Customs Code of Ukraine — the shipment of goods prohibited for mailing by Ukrainian legislation and the acts of the Universal Postal Union. The funds were seized pending court decision.