Who is protecting Taras Podgorodetsky, who unblocks crypto wallets for sanctioned Russians?

When, in December 2021, the Cyber ​​Police bravely reported that they had uncovered the activities of a network of cybercurrency exchangers that were engaged, among other things, in the withdrawal of money from the republics of Donbass, and the owner of this network, Taras Podgorodetsky, would be charged under several articles of the Criminal Code, smart people laughed cynically, writes Anticorrosive.

Because they immediately said that an accusation, even if it is brought, will lead to only one thing – they will simply charge interest from Taras Podgorodetsky in favor of the Office of the President, whose representatives, after the change of power, went through domestic business with a small comb, revealing all the structures that can be ” fly around.”

This happened with Podgorodetsky’s crypto business — after a crackling report about “the opening of a network of exchangers that withdrew money from the L/DPR”, absolutely nothing happened. Further promises “to bring charges against Taras Podgorodetsky under articles on money laundering (Article 209 of the Criminal Code) and illegal actions with transfer documents, payment cards and electronic money (Article 200 of the Criminal Code), as well as under Part 4 of Art. 190 (fraud on an especially large scale)”, things did not go well.

Let us briefly recall that in December 2021, the Cyber ​​Police carried out a series of searches and seizures of documentation and computer equipment in exchange offices in Kyiv, which were engaged in the withdrawal of money from various crypto wallets. The reason, among other things, was tax evasion and the withdrawal of money from the uncontrolled territories of Donbass and Crimea.

The investigation began after the owners of bank cards of one of the Ukrainian banks began to have problems in connection with allegations that their money financed the territories of the “LPR” and “DPR” not controlled by Ukraine, as well as the Russian Federation.

It turned out that through these cards money was withdrawn from e-wallets of Russia banned in Ukraine – Yandex.Money, Qiwi, Webmoney, etc. The money was either transferred to cryptocurrency or simply cashed out. Further investigation showed that the cards belonged to the so-called “drops” – people who rented them out. Some of the cards were generally designed for homeless people, prisoners and dead people. Which, by the way, already indicates that Taras Podgorodetsky has connections (it was his structures that ended up at the end of the chain) at the level of both bank employees and, at least, among employees of the penitentiary system.

In addition, the attackers used services like geo-pay.net to bypass limits on amounts and transactions. On behalf of the drops, they bought Tether tokens, the rate of which is pegged to the US dollar and does not experience such strong fluctuations as the rates of other cryptocurrencies.

This activity was carried out, among other things, through the well-known cryptocurrency exchange Binance, on the platform of which all operations were carried out. The Binance exchange is famous for the fact that it still works with Russian citizens, and the US financial authorities are investigating it. At the end of March, it became known that the Binance exchange from America, it seems, will be squeezed out.

Moreover, judging by the amounts that were distilled through these cards, the connections of the organizers of the scheme were at a fairly high level – the daily turnover of the “cashers” averaged $ 3 million. It is clear that such transactions without cover do not occur. And it is understandable why the Office of the President has a burning desire to “fly around” such a fat “client”.

Therefore, the statement about the financing of terrorists from the people’s jamakheria was nothing more than an additional method of pressure, in case Taras Podgorodetsky suddenly became stubborn and healed the bribe. Many highly respected (without quotes) people can tell about how we can cook “left-wing accusations”, let alone an ordinary crypto scammer.

But in fact, black exchangers do not conduct any targeted activities for the financing of terrorism. It’s just that the technology they use is easy to adapt to any need, including cross-border transfers. Therefore, among the clients of Podgorodetsky there were (and are) the same guys from the “L / DPR”. This does not justify him, but still one must be objective: the boy simply cut the loot, and Podgorodetsky was not interested in who and where this loot drives through his structures.

But in order for the boy to be more accommodating, in all the press releases and news that dispersed the channels controlled by the OPU, special emphasis was placed precisely on the fact that Podgorodetsky Taras and his own currency exchange were financing the Russians.

And then something happened that should have happened. After loud statements about the opening of criminal cases for “financing terrorism”, there was silence. A simple search on the Internet gives us the following picture:

A simple conclusion follows from this material: nothing happened to Taras Podgorodetsky, who was accused of financing the Russians only a year and a half ago and threatened with all heavenly punishments. What’s more, his business grew stronger and stronger. In addition to the network of cryptocurrency exchangers that he had at the time of his “arrest”, Podgorodetsky was engaged in “unblocking crypto wallets” and even created an entire agency for this:

What actually happens with “unlocking” is unknown. How successful this project is can only be learned from the words of Podgorodetsky himself:

But that’s not what’s interesting about this interview. And the fact that Taras Podgorodetsky directly states that most of his clients are Russian citizens:

If we believe his statement that 4.5 million dollars have already been unlocked, and another 122 are in the process, then on behalf of grateful Russians we can only express admiration.

And on behalf of the ungrateful Ukrainians – bewilderment: a man openly admits that he returned more than a hundred million dollars to Russia after February 24 last year. And something is not heard of bravura press releases from the Cyber ​​Police, and the SBU does not arrange mask shows in the exchangers of Taras Podgorodetsky.

Hence, a simple and very sad conclusion for Ukraine: the process of “billing” Podgorodetsky in December 2021 was successful. Who exactly did this, we do not know. But the result is obvious. The main thing is to cut the loot. And where it comes from and whose it is – what’s the difference.

Mikhail Sokolov

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