Belarus opens tax fraud case against independent media outlet Tut.by

On the morning of May 18, law enforcement officers in Minsk raided the newsroom of the independent outlet Tut.by, as well as its regional bureaus, and the homes of its journalists.

Later, Tut.by co-founder Kirill Voloshin reported that the news outlet’s website had been blocked. At the time, it was inaccessible to Internet users both inside and outside of Belarus (even with a VPN).

The searches in Minsk were carried out by officials from the Financial Investigations Department. Tut.by editor-in-chief Marina Zolotova is among the journalists whose homes were searched. Security officers also searched the office of the Belarusian hosting service Hoster.by, Tut.by reported.

Citing the Belarusian State Control Committee (KGK), the state news agency BelTA reported that Belarusian law enforcement agencies have opened a criminal case on large-scale tax evasion against Tut.by’s leadership.

According to the KGK, Tut By Media LLC has been registered as a “resident” of Belarus Hi-Tech Park (a technology park in Minsk), making it eligible for certain tax exemptions. The KGK alleges that the media company obtained revenue “not resulting from activities that are permitted for residents” of Hi-Tech Park, and thereby caused “particularly large-scale damage” to the state. 

Hi-Tech Park’s supervisory board has revoked the company’s resident status, BelTA added.

In addition to being one of Belarus’s leading independent news outlets, Tut.by is one of the most visited sites in the country. It has been in operation since 2000. A Minsk court deprived the outlet of its media license in December 2020.