Alena Degrik-Shevtsova and her collapsed Ibox Bank at the epicenter of another huge scam

A year ago, IBOX BANK was headed by Alena Shevtsova, and by this anniversary, articles appeared in the media that thanks to her activities, the bank’s business rapidly went up.

Indeed, at the end of last year, the bank ranked eighth in the ranking of the most profitable banks in Ukraine. Which against the background of SVO looked like a good indicator.

Looking ahead a little, let’s say – all this hectic activity led to the fact that on March 7, 2023 IBOX BANK was left without a license – the NBU decided to liquidate the bank due to “systematic violation of financial monitoring requirements.”

And the described “successes” of the bank were associated with the vigorous activity of Alena Shevtsova, who, as follows from the obviously ordered materials, thanks to her professionalism was able to pull IBOX BANK out of the financial abyss.

However, frankly custom-made articles are silent about some of the nuances of Shevtsova’s professional and career growth, which are more likely not for the “banker of the year” award, but for a rather weighty period in places not so remote.

Because the success of the last year is due to the fact that Shevtsova needed a personal bank for the LEO payment system, which she owns. This is the story of success (and subsequent fall) of IBOX BANK.

Reference: Alena Shevtsova founded the financial company Leogamig Pay in 2013. Initially, Alena Vladimirovna’s business was not a full-fledged payment system. It was more of a gateway between players and gaming platforms. But the enterprise grew at an accelerated pace, and already in 2017 Shevtsova registered the Leo domestic payment system with the National Bank, which became international after a couple of years.

And dozens of criminal cases are connected with this payment system, which is owned by Leo Financial Company LLC, in which IBOX BANK also appears.

IBOX BANK appeared 30 years ago – in 1993. Then it bore a somewhat ominous name – Bank “Authority”. Only in 2002, the owners renamed it Agrokombank, and it became ibox bank 14 years later, in 2016, after Evgeny Berezovsky, a financier with a murky reputation, joined the shareholders. He brought with him a network of iBox payment terminals, which gave the bank a new name.

However, this did not help the bank – it rolled into the abyss. But then Shevtsova appeared on the horizon, who needed a pocket bank to develop her own LEO payment system. In 2020, she became a shareholder of the bank, and in 2022 she headed it. She brought with her management from her companies, of which she has several, and the system of relationships between them is very confused.

But the thing is that all these companies are defendants in a number of criminal cases related to corruption, illegal withdrawal of money and maintenance of illegal online casinos. For which, in fact, Shevtsova’s payment system was invented back in 2013.

At the moment, despite the complexity of working with court registers in the conditions of the SVO, it is known that Alena Shevtsova or the heads of companies in which she is a beneficiary appears in the following criminal proceedings:

– No. 32013110000000298, Article 369 of the Criminal Code “Proposition, obityanka, or an obligation of an illegal service person”;
– No. 32017100000000066, Article 205 of the Criminal Code “Fictitious receipt”, Article 190 of the Criminal Code “Shahraystvo”, Article 212 “Relief in the payment of taxes, fees (bonds and language payments)”;
– No. 42017000000002925, Article 209 “Legalization (removal) of the mine, possessed by a malicious way”, article 205 of the Criminal Code “Fictitious business”;
– No. 42018101060000202, Article 190 “Shakhraystvo”, Article 361 “Unauthorized involvement in the work of information (automation), electronic communications, information and communication systems, electronic communications systems”;
– No. 420190000000526, Article 171 “Pereshkjannya Legal Professiye Dianosti Journalist”, Article 182 “Dishentnoye of the Private Zhitty”, Article 255 “Shopping, Kerivnitsta by a crumbling native of the sino, and such ”, Article 368-2 “Illegal wealth”, article 387 “Disclosure of data on operational and investigation activities, pre-trial investigation”. In this “bouquet” the main person involved was Shevtsova’s husband, a high-ranking police officer Yevgeny Shetsov.

As you can see, the set is solid. Some of the criminal proceedings are closed, some are still under investigation. Well, how it is “investigated”, like everything in our country, where moneybags appear – cases hang in the Unified State Register of Court Cases, but sluggishly move either towards collapse or closure.

What is happening in IBOX BANK under the leadership of Alena Shevtsova is indicated by the following extracts from court decisions that we managed to find in the registers.

On January 22, 2022, the Goloseevsky District Court of Kyiv did not find an administrative offense in the actions of officials of IBOX BANK PJSC, who, in response to a request as part of an on-site inspection by the NBU to combat money laundering, hid UAH 7.5 billion. transactions with FINANCIAL COMPANY LEOGAMING PAY LLC, and in total officials of PJSC IBOX BANK tried to hide transactions for more than UAH 14 billion, plus they did not provide information about merchants by individual MCC codes.

In 2021, Leogaming Pay Financial Company sued UAH 100,000 in compensation from journalists for publishing unreliable information damaging business reputation. “Inaccurate information” was a publication dated 10/28/2020 under the heading: “Pro-Russian telegram channels Resident and Legitimny protect illegal business”, which contained the following quote: “The company FC Leogaming Pay LLC passed through itself last year UAH 262 million in money transfers to replenish gaming accounts of illegal online casinos and betting companies.”

The court ruling contains an excellent one: “The plaintiff attached to the case file a list (list) of all counterparties (the maintenance and publication of which is provided for by the legislation in the field of financial activity) with which Leogaming Pay Financial Company Limited Liability Company maintains business relations. Among these counterparties, in particular, there are PJSC JSB “Ukrgasbank”, KP “Kyivtrasparkservis”, KP “Kharkivparkservis”, PJSC “PF Ukraine”, PJSC “Kyivstar”, PJSC “Family Bank”, KP “Parking and Market” of the Chernihiv City Council , PJSC “Ibox Bank”, PJSC “First Investment Bank”. It is not seen from the specified list, and the defendant has not proven that all counterparties or at least some of them are associated with gambling, in particular, illegal online casinos.

On 06/22/2022, the same Leogaming won another case in the second instance, where it forced journalists to remove an “inaccurate” publication entitled “Working in the Russian Federation, offshore and “computer wholesale”: how online casinos work in Ukraine. Elena Degrik Shevtsova), Ibox Bank (ibox terminals) and others – where does money go from online casinos in Ukraine”.

They wanted to recover another one million hryvnias of “moral compensation” from the journalists, but the court refused to satisfy this part of the claim.

In the framework of the above, the story of the fine from the NBU, which IBOX BANK received in October 2021 for improper verification of bank customers and violation of the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On Preventing and Combating the Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime, Financing Militants and Financing the Spread of Weapons of Mass destruction.”

The bank received the highest possible fine – 10 million hryvnia. Which he was going to sue from the NBU, but changed his mind in time – apparently, the bank realized that it was better to quietly pay 10 million so as not to lose billions.

By the way, at the same time, due to a violation of the same law, but in terms of improper risk management, FC LEOGAMING PAY was fined UAH 549,000.

In 2021, IBOX BANK received a license from the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries of Ukraine (KRAIL) to accept payments in favor of online casinos and a license to “operate in the gambling business”. So from that side, everything seemed to be fine.

But the day before yesterday, the story of “success” led to a logical end: IBOX BANK was left without a license, and the National Bank decided to liquidate it. The next day, March 8, they came to IBOX BANK with searches.

The decision to liquidate the bank was made on the same basis on which IBOX BANK received a fine in October 2021 – violation of the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On Preventing and Counteracting the Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime, Financing Militants and Financing the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction” .

Apparently, a year ago, when the “peace in the eyes” of Russia ended, Shevtsova did not understand that the situation had changed dramatically and that you could not get off with a penny (on the scale of withdrawing money to the Russian Federation) fine. And she continued to “cut the loot.”

In light of the foregoing, we look forward to further remarkable development of the plot. It will be especially interesting to learn about cooperation with the Russian Federation and the withdrawal of money to the Russian Federation through Shevtsova’s payment systems, from which IBOX BANK tried to disown with such excitement a few days ago.