From illegal casinos to "MIR" cards: ESBU and SBU exposed Alena Shevtsova’s scheme for laundering billions and working with Russian banks

The name of Alena Shevtsova, a Ukrainian businesswoman and recent co‑owner of iBox Bank, has rarely been featured in media reports. Nevertheless, her role in multi‑billion‑dollar financial schemes is notably substantial. Currently, she is the subject of a large‑scale investigation on charges of laundering billions of hryvnias originating from illegal enterprises and providing financial support to Russia.

Are the suspicions justified?

This is reported by KP.ua.

Money through terminals: how the scheme worked

According to an investigation by the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (ESBU), since 2021, billions of hryvnias have been illegally funneled through Alena Shevtsova’s iBox terminals. Most often, these were payments for online casinos coming from fictitious companies set up by Shevtsova. The online casinos themselves were also “shadow” operations: they operated without licenses or state oversight and paid no taxes.

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The key element of the financial scheme was so-called miscoding or fictitious payments. A client supposedly pays for mobile service, utilities, or online shopping. Such transactions went through unnoticed, raising no suspicions with bank supervisors. In reality, the funds went through the iBox terminal network to entirely different accounts—illegal casinos.

According to ESBU estimates, the scheme generated over 2.5 billion hryvnias in shadow profits annually, and in total more than 5 billion hryvnias were processed through Alena Shevtsova’s companies. On this basis, the court arrested two top managers of iBox Bank.

At one point, the SSU even suspected Alena Shevtsova and iBox Bank managers of laundering money from drug trafficking. The illicit flow of funds through the bank’s terminals, located in nearly every shopping center, greatly facilitated the life of the criminal underworld.

IMF sounds the alarm: the National Bank joins the case

When the scale of such account top-ups became anomalously large, it was noticed even abroad. In 2023, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) officially approached the National Bank of Ukraine with a query: why is a bank without a full banking license processing multi-billion transfers, indicating the presence of a criminal scheme?

This signal from Ukraine’s international partner prompted the NBU to conduct an inspection, as a result of which iBox Bank lost its license in March 2023. The regulator determined that the bank’s financial operations were opaque and its internal compliance did not meet legal requirements.

Money to Russian cards

Even more alarming were facts that emerged in a separate criminal proceeding. According to investigation materials, iBox Bank serviced platforms that allowed the conversion of cryptocurrency into Russian rubles and the withdrawal of funds to cards of the Russian payment system “MIR.”

This constituted a direct violation of the sanctions regime imposed by the NBU in 2022. It was not merely a risk to national security but the financing of the aggressor state, law enforcement agencies say. There is also evidence of cooperation between “Financial Company LEO,” owned by Alena Shevtsova, and Russian banks—including Promsvyazbank, Sberbank, Tinkoff, and VTB. In 2023, the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine (NSDC) imposed sanctions against “FC LEO.” In 2024, sanctions were imposed personally against Shevtsova.

Gambling addiction among military personnel: another security challenge

Many recall reports of military personnel, under enormous stress, becoming massively addicted to online casinos. It is worth noting that serviceman Pavel Petrychenko of the 59th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine registered a petition to restrict the operation of online casinos, particularly access for military personnel during martial law.

“Military personnel find themselves in stressful conditions, in a difficult situation—war, shelling, combat. And the phone becomes their only comfort, quick access to entertainment that can lead to addiction. On top of that, they fall into debt. Many families are facing this,” Pavel Petrychenko said on a telethon.

Gambling addiction drained the wallets of military personnel and enriched illegal online casinos and, indirectly, Alena Shevtsova, who created the largest scheme of illicit financial flows. It is no surprise that the petition collected the required 25,000 signatures in less than a day, and the President made the corresponding decision to ban military personnel from accessing online casinos for the duration of martial law.

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

Sends: British fintech with a tarnished reputation

Despite serious accusations in Ukraine, Shevtsova’s British company Smartflow Payments Limited, operating under the Sends brand, still holds a license from the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) and continues its operations without issue.

Formally, the NSDC sanctions have no 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 Kolomiyets explains: “British registration alone is not an indulgence. If the FCA learns that the company’s director is under sanctions for money laundering and assisting the Russian Federation, the question of revoking the license is only a matter of time.”

Silence and blaming others as a defence strategy

Publicly, Alena Shevtsova commented on the sanctions against her by the NSDC only once, claiming they were an attempt to seize her business. “I don’t understand at all why sanctions were imposed against me. I, a patriot of my country, have supported our defenders not just in words but in deeds since February 24, 2022, and have done everything to create a reliable rear, paid taxes, and developed the business,” Shevtsova stated on her Facebook page. However, she does not comment on the accusations of criminal activity.

Nevertheless, according to investigations by domestic and foreign media and the ESBU, Shevtsova has repeatedly appeared in schemes involving fictitious transactions, offshore companies, and cash flows bearing signs of criminal activity. At the same time, in open sources, her British company Sends continues to declare “compliance with British legislation” and “no connection to Ukrainian cases.”

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

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