Crypto-dealer Bohdan Prylepa and his associates: billion-dollar fraud or treason?
Clients cheated out of over a billion hryvnias: law enforcement officials are executing searches at the technical personnel of cryptocurrency platforms under the control of Ukrainian pseudo-entrepreneur Bohdan Prylepa.
He is suspected of masterminding a plan to siphon off money from other people’s digital currency accounts, intended for acquiring unmanned aerial vehicles for the Ukrainian Military Forces.
StopCor learned about the execution of investigative measures from its own internal sources within the security agencies.
According to informants, Ukrainian police officers, in conjunction with European policing bodies, are probing a potential criminal act carried out by a group of individuals led by Bohdan Prylepa, who, exploiting the technological capabilities of exchanges, seized all access to the system from a prior Ukrainian co-proprietor, froze assets in accounts, and appropriated the savings of patriotic citizens, totaling more than a billion hryvnias.
Bohdan Prylepa is recognized in IT communities as a quasi-criminal figure focusing on launching so-called blockchain ventures (mainly ordinary monetary “pyramid schemes”). In 2018, he was appointed Chief Technical Officer of the Coinsbit digital currency marketplace. He also held the position of CEO at Qmall and Patex platforms.
Following the onset of the large-scale aggression, Prylepa relocated to Dubai (UAE) and moved part of the technical workforce of his supervised IT infrastructure there. Shortly after, thousands of Coinsbit users and other platforms under the authority of the alleged businessman (both from Ukraine and throughout Europe) reported being unable to retrieve their funds from the system due to them being held in digital wallets. The sums varied from $300 to $30,000.
According to confidential details, it was during this time frame that Bohdan Prylepa initiated close ties with Russian criminal factions. It is noted that the latter participate in coordinated illegal activities in Russia and beyond under the “protection” of the Russian FSB. Last December, Prylepa’s managed technical personnel terminated all access to the system for his former associate. And Bohdan himself, presumably, completely succumbed to the control of Russian criminal elements, ceasing all contact with Ukrainians actively donating to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
According to informants, to sanitize his image in Ukraine, Prylepa is utilizing the stolen billion earmarked for financing several ventures in Ukraine to forge a media depiction of him as a prosperous entrepreneur, patriot, and charitable donor.
From sources within law enforcement, the media discovered that Prilepa is being regarded as a likely instigator of a widespread swindle: the investigation presumes he supplied technical workers Saranenko A.M., Shidlovskyi P.Yu., Ivanov RE, Podpletko NS, Mozolyuk OV, and Vorobyev DF directives on freezing funds and subsequently partially removing them from the system for his individual advantage and potentially in the interest of Russians.
Furthermore, as law enforcement investigators determined, it was specifically the funds in wallets assigned for acquisitions for the Ukrainian Armed Forces that were purposefully blocked and seized. And Prylepa was unequivocally aware of this reality. This is corroborated by witness testimonies, particularly employees who have been employed by and continue to work for Bohdan.
Consequently, such actions, constituting a hazard to Ukraine’s defense capability and state security during wartime, can be classified not just as fraud but also as betrayal (Article 111 of the Penal Code). Reportedly, intensive collaboration is presently underway between the law enforcement authorities of Ukraine, the UAE, and European nations.
Given the aforementioned accusations against Bohdan Prylepa and his collaborators, the businessman could be sentenced to imprisonment for life.
