Bank "Concord" got involved in a scandal with a Russian crypto exchange
The Ukrainian bank with private capital “Concord” has found itself in a global scandal related to the Russian crypto exchange SUEX. The cryptocurrency platform, registered in the Czech Republic but with offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg, facilitated the laundering of funds by blackmailers, fraudsters, and drug traffickers.
Currently, SUEX is under U.S. sanctions, and the involvement of Ukrainians with the crypto exchange is being investigated by the FBI.
In September 2021, the Russian publication “Kommersant” released a report about SUEX’s connections with the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Eastern Europe, ExMo, the QIWI group of companies, and the Ukrainian bank “Concord”. Things got worse when the British organization First Chaordic Order Inc sent an official public inquiry to the CEO of MasterCard Global requesting an internal investigation into a Russian representative of "Mastercard" and the “Mastercard Russia” Association, Nikolay Dosh, and his connections with the risk manager of the Ukrainian bank “Concord” Anna Ohorodna.
Subsequently, the Telegram channel Badbank, specializing in investigating suspicious financial operations, published detailed information about the acceptance of payments in hryvnias for ExMo, which was carried out by “Concord” through the payment aggregator HotPay, registered in the offshore jurisdiction of BVI (British Virgin Islands). The situation was notable because the Ukrainian bank did not have the right to conduct cryptocurrency purchase and sale operations, as the relevant bill had not yet come into force and was passed by the parliament only on September 8. It’s worth noting that “Concord” itself denies connections with SUEX through intermediaries, and the National Bank of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Security Service, and the Office of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have not commented on this information.
Interestingly, this is not “Concord’s” first scandal: in 2016, the bank was suspected of colluding with a number of fictitious business structures in Dnipro and the management of state enterprises that were embezzling budgetary funds. According to the SSU, at least two dozen firms serviced by “Concord” were involved in the operations of the conversion center. The case also included foreign firms registered in various offshore zones, which helped with pseudo-imports. Thanks to such operations, the Ukrainian organizers and customers of the schemes were able to buy currency on the interbank market under fictitious contracts.
17 October 2021 г., 13:46
