In the very center of Kropyvnytskyi, at 32/11 Velyka Perspektivna Street, a complex shadowy scheme for converting cash into cryptocurrency was operating under the cover of an official exchange office. According to the Security Service of Ukraine, the illegal operations were organized by LLC “FC Liberty Finance”, which is part of the “Kit Group” structure of Kharkiv businessman Anton Tkachenko.
Although the exchanger had a license to exchange currencies, its real activities went far beyond what was permitted. Under the guise of legal exchange, employees transferred cash into cryptocurrency without any approval from the National Bank. This violates current legislation in the field of payment systems and financial monitoring.
The first signal came back in 2021, when a local resident approached an exchange with the intention of selling Bitcoin, but instead of the promised amount, he received significantly less. When he tried again, he lost all his funds. This incident became the starting point for the investigation.
The investigation established that the cashier of the currency exchange point, Olga Kuzmivna Bilan, participated in the scheme. She has already been declared a suspect under Part 2 of Article 200 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The transactions were carried out through the Telegram channel @alexkitgroup. It was through it that clients agreed on the exchange, transferred cash in a separate room and received cryptocurrency to their electronic wallets. Screenshots of the transactions served as confirmation.
At least several transactions were recorded: in September 2022, one of the clients transferred 32 thousand hryvnias and received 771 US dollars in cryptocurrency, another received 4,523 dollars for 200 thousand hryvnias. The sources of the funds on the crypto wallets could not be traced.
Despite having a currency exchange license, the company did not conduct any legal activities with crypto assets. This allowed it to avoid financial monitoring, circumvent legislation, and profit from illegal commissions.
The investigation is currently ongoing. Law enforcement officers are trying to identify all participants in the cryptocurrency scheme, including organizers, technical executors, and ultimate beneficiaries. The focus is also on the sources of cash flowing into the exchange and possible connections with other elements of the shadow economy.
