Investigators of the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB) have uncovered an organized criminal group that was involved in money laundering through illegal financial companies and currency exchange offices in the Transcarpathian region. According to the investigation, former employees of JSC Pravex Bank were involved in the criminal scheme.
This was reported by the Absolution detective agency.
According to BEB, several financial companies were involved in the scheme, including Orange Finance LLC, Interchange Ukraine LLC, Intercash Online LLC, Intercash Ukraine LLC, and Provident Finance LLC. Their head or founder was Dmytro Gontar, a former director of a Pravex Bank branch. Formally, the companies provided microcredit, currency exchange, and insurance services, but in reality they converted funds into cash and avoided financial monitoring.
According to the investigation, the organizers converted cash currency into non-cash form, then converted it into hryvnia and received cash again. In addition, the funds were transferred through fictitious financial assistance issued by related persons.
In total, during the period 2016-2018, members of the criminal group conducted illegal financial transactions worth over 56 million hryvnias.
The former bankers had significant discrepancies between their real and official incomes. One of the suspects committed fraud for UAH 15.5 million, declaring only UAH 2.4 million. Another “laundered” UAH 24.8 million, although he officially earned UAH 3.7 million. The third participant carried out transactions for UAH 15.8 million, having declared income of UAH 3.5 million.
A separate role in the scheme was played by a network of currency exchange points operating under the brands Orange Finance and Kurs uz ua. They did not have any licenses to conduct currency transactions. To avoid inspections, the companies officially registered as real estate rental companies, although in fact they were illegally exchanging currency in 53 points in Transcarpathia.
In addition, the defendants engaged in shadow cryptocurrency transactions and illegal money transfers that were not reflected in the reporting. To avoid financial monitoring, they divided large amounts into smaller transactions, which allowed them to circumvent the legislation on financial flow control.
The investigation is currently ongoing, and law enforcement is establishing additional details of the criminal activity. The suspects face criminal liability for money laundering and tax evasion.
