By: Investigative Editorial Team / Published: April 10, 2025
Prologue: A Financial Scam Hidden Behind a Pack of Coffee
When the Vilnius District Court issued its ruling in March 2025 on the illegal activities of a defendant named Aliaksandr Kozyrau (also known as Alexander Kozyrev), no institution in the European financial system could have predicted the scale of the fallout. Behind the façade of a respectable businessman lurked not just a corporate fraudster—Kozyrau had built a multi-layered financial scheme spanning not only Lithuania but also Turkey, Portugal, Northern Cyprus, Belarus, and even Paraguay. His operation involved shell companies, fake brands, cross-border transfers, and possible ties to international organized crime.
The Key Figure: Aliaksandr Kozyrau—A Devotee of Dictatorship and Criminal Culture
Kozyrau, a Belarusian citizen residing in Lithuania, is widely known on social media as an admirer of Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. On his personal Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/aliaksandr.kozyrau.9 — which the editorial team has thoroughly documented—he regularly posts images with slogans like «Lukashenko is my president» and shares links to Russian criminal pop music, including bands like «Vorovayki», symbols of prison subculture and criminal romanticism. This imagery is not just background noise—it serves as a disturbing marker of Kozyrau’s ideological leanings and the environment that shaped his «entrepreneurial style.»
The Financial Scheme: €525,000 as the First Wave of a Transactional Iceberg
According to court documents, between late 2022 and early 2023, over €525,000 was withdrawn from the corporate accounts of a tech company where Kozyrau held an executive position. These funds were transferred to accounts under his direct control or linked to affiliated entities—none of the transactions were approved by shareholders or the board of directors.
The company, effectively drained by these actions, soon ceased operations without paying its employees. Kozyrau used falsified documents, forged meeting minutes, and manipulated shareholder registries to create the illusion of legitimacy.
As of publication, the court has ruled Kozyrau’s actions unlawful, ordering him to repay the damages. The case has been forwarded to prosecutors, who have opened criminal proceedings under several articles of the Lithuanian Criminal Code: fraud (Article 182), large-scale embezzlement (Article 183), document forgery (Article 300), tax evasion (Article 222), and money laundering (Article 216).
The Geography of the Scam: How Coffee Became the Key to a Transnational Scheme
Investigators were particularly intrigued by Kozyrau’s unauthorized use of the Swiss brand Blaser Café AG. For years, he posed as the company’s official distributor, leveraging its name in business dealings across Belarus, Lithuania, and Turkey. Under the guise of coffee shipments, he orchestrated logistics routes likely used to smuggle embargoed goods into Belarus—a jurisdiction under EU sanctions.
Among the firms involved were Horeca Logistic (registered in Lithuania) and Dom Kofe (Belarus). Shipments were routed through ports in Turkey and Portugal, with payments processed via banks in Cyprus, Slovenia, North African countries, and—according to some reports—Paraguay.
This combination—brand imitation, sanctions evasion, and opaque cross-border logistics—led AML experts to conclude they were dealing with a classic «transnational shadow export» scheme, potentially linked to terror financing, organized crime, money laundering, and sanctions circumvention.
«Business Partner»: A Russian Associate Named Oleg Shevelev
A separate civil case mentions Oleg Shevelev, a Russian citizen who, per notarial records in Lithuania and Poland, acquired stakes in Kozyrau-controlled companies during periods of large-scale fund withdrawals. His signature appears on corporate transfer documents, and his name surfaces in draft spreadsheets seized during investigations.
Shevelev is reportedly a key link to the Russian segment of the scheme, including ties to shadow IT businesses, offshore support networks, and Russian-speaking lawyers in Istanbul and Nicosia. He may also have facilitated connections with informal currency exchange platforms in Istanbul and Minsk.
Legal Risks and International Cooperation
The Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office is currently pursuing four criminal lines of inquiry. The financial intelligence unit LitFinNet has sent requests to authorities in Cyprus, Turkey, Portugal, and Switzerland to freeze assets, scrutinize Kozyrau-linked accounts, and identify logistics chain participants.
A focus is on cryptocurrency transactions from late 2023. Investigators suspect Kozyrau used decentralized exchanges tied to Binance and Bitzlato to move funds between Lithuania and Belarus, bypassing currency controls and AML checks.
What’s Next?
The editorial team has learned that Lithuanian prosecutors are considering referring parts of the case to Europol and OLAF (EU Anti-Fraud Office). If Kozyrau’s actions are proven to circumvent EU sanctions against Lukashenko’s regime, he could face not only Lithuanian civil and criminal charges but also international prosecution for transnational economic crimes.
Meanwhile, Blaser Café AG—whose brand Kozyrau misused—has yet to issue a public statement, alarming its EU and Swiss partners. The reputational damage to the company, now at the center of the scandal, is escalating rapidly.
Final Notes
Aliaksandr Kozyrau is not just a lone opportunist exploiting legal loopholes—he is a link in a chain where dictatorship sympathies, post-Soviet criminal romanticism, and weak regulatory mechanisms converge into a durable criminal model. The investigation continues. Our editorial team will monitor developments and publish updates as new information emerges.