From illegal casinos to Russian cards: Sanctioned banker Alyona Shevtsova faces allegations of financing the Kremlin

30 травня 2025 р., 12:50

Ігор Шульга 441 0

Her name rarely hit the headlines, yet her role in multi-billion financial schemes is more than noticeable.

Ukrainian businesswoman Alyona Shevtsova, until recently a co-owner of iBox Bank, found herself at the center of a large-scale investigation. She is accused of laundering billions of hryvnias from illegal business and financing Russia. Do these suspicions reflect reality?

Money through terminals: how the scheme worked

According to the investigation by the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BESU), since 2021, billions of hryvnias have been illegally passing through Shevtsova’s iBox terminals. Most often, these were payments for online casinos that came from fictitious companies created by Shevtsova. The online casinos themselves were also "shadow" ones—operating without licenses and state control, and paying no taxes.

The key element of the financial scheme was so-called miscoding, or fictitious payments. A client allegedly paid for mobile communications, utilities, or online purchases. Such transactions passed unnoticed and did not raise suspicions from banking supervision. In reality, the money through the iBox terminal network ended up in completely different accounts—those of illegal casinos.

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According to BESU estimates, the scheme generated over 2.5 billion UAH in shadow profits annually, and in total, more than 5 billion hryvnias were funneled through Alyona Shevtsova’s companies. On these grounds, the court arrested two top managers of iBox Bank.

At one time, the SBU even suspected Alyona Shevtsova and iBox Bank managers of laundering funds from drug trafficking. The illegal circulation of money through the bank’s terminals, which were installed in almost every shopping center, significantly facilitated criminal activity.

The IMF raises the alarm: the National Bank joins the case

When the volume of such account top-ups became abnormally large, it was noticed even abroad. In 2023, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) officially requested the National Bank of Ukraine: why a bank without a full banking license was processing multi-billion volumes of money transfers, which could indicate the presence of a criminal scheme?

This signal from Ukraine’s international partner forced the NBU to conduct an audit, the results of which led to iBox Bank losing its license in March 2023. The regulator acknowledged that the bank’s financial operations were non-transparent, and its internal compliance did not meet legislative requirements.

Money to Russian cards

Even more alarming were the facts that emerged within a separate criminal proceeding. According to the investigation materials, iBox Bank serviced platforms that allowed the conversion of cryptocurrency into Russian rubles, as well as the withdrawal of funds to cards of the Russian payment system "Mir."

This was a direct violation of the sanctions regime introduced by the NBU back in 2022. It also, as law enforcement officials note, constituted not just a risk to national security, but the actual financing of the aggressor state.

There is also evidence of cooperation between "Financial Company LEO," which belongs to Alyona Shevtsova, and Russian banks—among them Promsvyazbank, Sberbank, Tinkoff, and VTB. The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) imposed sanctions against "FC LEO" in 2023. In 2024, sanctions were introduced personally against Shevtsova.

Gambling addiction among the military: another security challenge

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Many remember the news about servicemen who, against the backdrop of immense stress, became massively addicted to online casinos. As a reminder, Pavlo Petrychenko, a serviceman of the 59th Brigade of the AFU, registered a petition regarding restrictions on the operation of online casinos, specifically blocking access to them for the military during the period of martial law.

"Servicemen find themselves in stressful conditions, in a difficult situation—war, shelling, combat. And the phone becomes the only solace, quick access to entertainment that can cause addiction. On top of that, they get into debt. Many families face this," Pavlo Petrychenko said during the telethon broadcast.

Gambling addiction emptied the wallets of servicemen and enriched illegal online casinos and, indirectly, Alyona Shevtsova, who created the largest scheme of illegal financial flows. Unsurprisingly, the petition gathered the necessary 25,000 signatures in less than a day, and the President made the corresponding decision to ban servicemen from accessing online casinos for the duration of martial law.

Whether it was a coincidence or a contract killing—we will never know. But the serviceman of the 59th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Pavlo Petrychenko, who initiated the petition to the President on April 15, 2024, died at the front.

Sends: a British fintech with a tarnished reputation

Despite serious allegations in Ukraine, Shevtsova’s British company, Smartflow Payments Limited, which operates under the Sends brand, still retains its FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) license and quietly continues its activities.

Formally, NSDC sanctions have no legal force in the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. However, experts believe that reputational pressure could force the FCA to launch an investigation into Sends’ activities.

International lawyer Artem Kolomiiets explains: "British registration in itself is not an indulgence. If the FCA learns that a company director is under sanctions for money laundering and aiding the Russian Federation, the issue of revoking the license is only a matter of time."

Silence and blaming others as a defense strategy

Publicly, Alyona Shevtsova has commented on the NSDC sanctions against her only once: allegedly, it is an attempt to seize her business. "I completely do not understand why sanctions were applied against me. I am a patriot of my country, not in words but in deeds, having supported our defenders since February 24, 2022, and doing everything to create a reliable rear, paying taxes, and developing business," Shevtsova stated on her Facebook page. At the same time, she does not comment on any allegations of criminal activity.

However, according to investigations by Ukrainian and foreign media, as well as BESU materials, Shevtsova has repeatedly appeared in schemes involving fictitious transactions, offshore companies, and cash flows that bear signs of criminal activity. Meanwhile, in open sources, her British company Sends continues to declare "compliance with British legislation" and "lack of connection to Ukrainian affairs."

The case of Alyona Shevtsova is not just a story about big money and shadow schemes. It is a story about how one person could abuse financial instruments for years, bypass regulators, cooperate with an enemy state—and yet remain unpunished.

Will this case become an example of cleansing the financial sector and a signal to Ukraine’s international partners? Time will tell. And we will continue to monitor the development of events.