"Laundering," sanctions, and disappearing investigations: How Shevtsova plans to return to Ukrainian business

Alyona Shevtsova (Dehrik), the owner of Ibox Bank, who became a suspect in the investigation by BES and was sanctioned by the NSDC, hopes to return to Ukraine, and perhaps, has every reason to do so, as her connections reach very high.

This is reported by the publication "Comments".

The official biography of Alena Shevtsova, born in 1987 in Odesa (née Dehrik), tells of a successful career. She began working at the age of 20 in the investment company Concorde Capital of Ihor Mazepa in 2007, but by 2009 she had started her own business in the legal field by founding the law firm "Leo Partners". Moreover, many of Shevtsova’s companies would have the prefix "Leo" in their name, explained by the name of her firstborn – Lev.

According to Forbes Ukraine, Alyona Shevtsova derived her recipe for success in 2010 by founding the financial company LeoGaming, which specialized in financial calculations and payments in video games. The company even later received its own e-sports team. However, true success came to Alyona Shevtsova after creating her own "triad": the payment system — LeoGaming Pay (now Leo), the network of payment terminals iBox, and the Ibox Bank itself.

The latter, by the way, is one of the oldest in Ukraine — operating since 1993 and received its current name in the mid-2010s. It should be noted that although Alyona Shevtsova was the "face" of Ibox Bank, according to the NBU, she owned a maximum of 24.98% of the financial institution and held the position of chairperson of the supervisory board. Nevertheless, she was the one managing the bank’s business and did so more than successfully. The net profit of the bank skyrocketed from 5.2 million UAH in 2019 to 598.3 million UAH by the end of 2022. However, in March 2023, this idyllic picture was shattered by the officers of the SSU and BES.

It became apparent that Ibox Bank was in serious trouble in March 2023 when on March 7, the NBU revoked its license, and on the 8th, the SSU and BES raided the financial institution. The release from the special service reported that the capital bank had implemented a scheme for laundering gaming industry’s income. It was about so-called miscoding — a scheme where banks change payment codes to disguise transfers to online casinos as, say, payments for groceries. This allows concealing the inflow of funds to online casinos and thus evading taxes. As claimed by the SSU, funds from 20 controlled companies’ accounts were transferred to gambling website accounts, after which the money was withdrawn and split among scheme participants. The bank’s annual income was 2.5 billion UAH, with an annual turnover of 180 billion UAH. Although the name of Ibox Bank was not mentioned, the phrase about its recent NBU license withdrawal was a clear hint at Alyona Shevtsova’s creation.

A year later, BES was less tactful, stating that under suspicion for laundering 5 billion UAH for illegal online casinos, two directors of Ibox Bank’s department were arrested. Moreover, three more people, including the bank’s co-owner, were put on the wanted list. According to the Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs database, this was done as far back as March 8, 2023.

By 2025, the investigation of Alyona Shevtsova and Ibox Bank was actively continuing, and her activities attracted not only law enforcement but also the NSDC, which imposed personal sanctions against her on April 12.

The Ibox Bank case was handed over to the court by July 2. The exact location of Shevtsova is unknown, but in April, one of the banker’s accomplices was detained by Polish law enforcement.

Although the deluge of suspicions from law enforcement hit Alyona Shevtsova hard in 2023, she had actually been under suspicion for quite some time. As early as 2020, Mind.ua published an investigation stating that Alyona Shevtsova (Dehrik) might have been cooperating with illegal casinos. According to the article, the LeoGaming Pay payment system transferred 262 million UAH to casinos and used the Tyme payment system to operate with Russia. All of this led to threats against the article’s journalist-author, and then to a court case to defend business reputation. However, in the end, Alyona Shevtsova lost.

In September 2018, in a BIHUS Info article about the SBI contest, information emerged about the conflict of interest involving then Deputy Minister of Justice Nataliya Bernatska.

The official voted for the appointment of the head of the 1st Department of Pre-trial Investigations of the SBI, police officer Yevhen Shevtsov. Journalists discovered that LLC "Financial Company "Leogaming Pay" of Alyona Shevtsova commissioned a legal audit from the firm Integrites, co-owned by Ruslan Bernatskyi. All of this was not a coincidence — Alyona Shevtsova was Yevhen’s wife, and Ruslan Bernatskyi was the husband of the Deputy Minister of Justice. This was interpreted as a conflict of interest, which Nataliya Bernatska should have reported, and recused herself during the vote, but she remained silent.

"Leogaming Pay” was featured in a criminal proceeding regarding money laundering and transferring it to Russia. It is unknown whether this played a pivotal role in the contest, but Yevhen Shevtsov did not get the position at the SBI after all. However, this likely did not greatly upset the deputy head of the main investigative department of the National Police, who was the wealthiest police officer in Ukraine by 2021. With a personal salary of 412 thousand UAH in 2020, his family’s income, thanks to Alyona Shevtsova, exceeded 90 million UAH, with another 94 million UAH in financial assets. Yevhen Shevtsov’s declaration also noted a high salary for Alyona Shevtsova: 143.7 million UAH in 2021 and 58.3 million UAH in 2022. However, to claim that Yevhen Shevtsov is merely a cover for his wife would be incorrect, best illustrated by MP from the "Holos" party, Oleksandra Ustinova’s "case".

In 2020, after revealing a gift of non-residential property in the capital to Alyona Shevtsova, Oleksandra Ustinova stated that Yevhen Shevtsov was unworthy of the officer’s title. In response, she encountered insults in social networks, and an internal investigation showed that the officer’s page was hacked before posting insults to the politician.

50 MPs demanded then Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov to look into the matter, but instead, in August 2021, the MP’s property was seized to ensure the payment of 80 thousand UAH in moral compensation to Yevhen Shevtsov. It is likely that Yevhen Shevtsov was so needed by the National Police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs that even the scandal with the deputies did not become a reason to remove him from office.

Interestingly, Arsen Avakov left the position of Minister of Internal Affairs in July, but this did not affect Alyona Shevtsova’s husband’s career. Judging by Shevtsov’s declaration, only in 2024 did he move from the deputy head of the Department of Society and State Interests Protection of the National Police to a senior operative officer of one of the departments.

However, Shevtsova’s connections are not limited to her husband and likely began with her activities in the early 2010s. According to some sites, during this time, she was involved in political activity and headed the Kyiv branch of "Young Regions" — the youth wing of the banned Party of Regions.

Indeed, in the blogs of the "Liga" website, one can find a 2013 post by Alyona Shevtsova calling to participate in the “I Have an Idea" project. It is worth noting that the list of projects for "Young Regions" indeed featured the same slogan "I Have an Idea". Online, there is information that Alyona Shevtsova was an active partner of former head of the State Tax Service Roman Nasirov in a profit laundering case. It is claimed that Nasirov pressured the NBU decision to register the “Leo” payment system.

Finally, Alyona Shevtsova may have become acquainted with former President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, aided by the "Closed Non-diversified Corporate Venture Investment Fund "Leo Invest Group”. It was registered by her and businessman Volodymyr Bilousov in October 2021, and exactly one year later, the former president of Ukraine replaced Shevtsova as a co-owner of the fund.

Alyona Shevtsova actively used her husband’s electronic declaration for legalizing her own incomes. Thus, since 2017, the electronic declaration of Yevhen Shevtsov occasionally mentions Yuliya Nikulina, who, according to the declaration, simply gifts millions of UAH to Alyona Shevtsova:

— in 2017, it was 3 million UAH;

— in 2019, only 240 thousand UAH;

— in 2020, it was 2.9 million UAH;

— in 2021 and 2024, 1.5 million UAH each.

In total, in this way, Alyona Shevtsova received a gift of 9 million 140 thousand UAH from her compatriot. Media outlets found Odesa resident Yuliya Nikulina who, in addition to being a legal entity, was a co-owner of some firms. For example, LLC "International Payments" (field of activity - providing informational services, statutory fund - 10 thousand UAH), which is currently undergoing bankruptcy.

Since November 3, 2015, the company, among other firms, has been a subject in criminal case No. 12015000000000601. According to the investigation, 10.1 million dollars passed through the accounts of this and other LLCs, which were transferred abroad, specifically benefitting companies LEO PARTNERS LIMITED (UK LIMITED (Cyprus). As one may note, the company names strangely coincide with the naming of the legal company "Leo Partners", opened by Alyona Shevtsova back in 2009.

Of course, one might assume it was a mere coincidence of names. But why would the co-owner of a company involved in the investigation transfer millions of UAH to the owner of a firm with such a similar name? Was there no desire to legalize part of the money obtained in such a way from a company owned by a trusted person — Yuliya Nikulina?! Even more interesting is criminal proceeding No. 42017000000002925, which the Security Service of Ukraine has been investigating since 2017.

According to the investigation, a network of commercial structures, using various payment systems, including Alyona Shevtsova’s LeoGaming Pay, allowed clients to gamble in then-illegal gambling activities, particularly through the online casino "PariMatch". Incidentally, the volume of laundered money according to the SSU within the criminal case amounted to 350 million dollars. In the list of companies used for legalizing illicit proceeds, FC "Business Retail Group" (currently LLC “Chinau”) was mentioned, which until December 2021 was owned by Yuliya Nikulina.

Interestingly, as claimed by the BES, there was pressure on the court in Alyona Shevtsova’s case, indicating she has substantial connections, which, however, have not yet worked out. The Shevtsova case lives thanks to bill_line of Artem Lyashanov Amidst such a reputation and a wealth of information about Alyona Shevtsova, the disappearance of some materials from the informational space seems odd. Thus, investigations about Ibox Bank and Alyona Dehrik-Shevtsova regarding Nazariy Husakov’s transfers through Shevtsova’s financial structures disappeared from RBC-Ukraine’s site. After the article’s release, journalists reported pressure on them involving IBOX BANK and LeoGaming companies, and after 1.5 months, the articles began to disappear.

This may indicate that Alyona Shevtsova herself hopes to return to Ukraine, and possibly is even in the negotiation stage.

Presumably, she may be driven by the desire to return to the business left with her former subordinate, and now an independent player in the specific financial services market — Artem Lyashanov and his payment system bill_line. Officially, Artem Lyashanov is a financial savant who, at 34 years old, has 15 years of experience in the financial sphere. His main business is the online banking service provider payment system bill_line, legally represented by LLC "Tech-Soft Atlas" (field of activity — providing informational services, statutory fund — 3.1 million UAH).

Interestingly, since July 27, 2022, the owner of the company has been Odesa resident Andriy Morhun. What’s so remarkable about this? But Lyashanov stepped down from the company’s founders right during the investigation of criminal case No. 42021100000000283, in which LLC "Tech-Soft Atlas" was featured as a potential participant in money laundering schemes. According to the investigation, some LLC “Spectrum Alpha” made agreements with various companies to provide fictitious IT services. Subsequently, these funds were transferred to the accounts of fictitious companies.

As a result, during 2020-2021, 150 million UAH passed through “Spectrum Alpha”, and the state budget missed out on 11 million UAH in taxes. Interestingly, one of the fictitious companies in this scheme is considered LLC "Hunter 2023" (field of activity — advertising mediation in the media, statutory fund — 7 million UAH), which conducted operations in favor of the online casino "PariMatch". The latter is also mentioned in criminal proceeding No. 42017000000002925, in which Alyona Shevtsova’s donor of millions, Yuliya Nikulina, is featured as the owner of LLC "Financial Company “Business Retail Group” (currently LLC “Chinau”). However, perhaps we are dealing with entrepreneurs merely operating in the same sphere and for the same clients.

Well, maybe so, but Artem Lyashanov is not only acquainted with Alyona Shevtsova, he was working for her in 2017. This is indicated by the Fintech Ukraine 2017 participant program — an event where Ukrainian financiers gather: 8 years ago, Artem Lyashanov was announced as CTO (Chief Technical Officer) of Alyona Shevtsova’s LeoGaming among meeting participants. It’s possible that the former subordinate with his bill_line actively occupies the niche of specific services previously provided by Alyona Shevtsova, and she decided to return, negotiating with law enforcement, judges, and media, while actively focusing on "whitening" her reputation.