The Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine has uncovered a large-scale financial scheme in which over 56 million hryvnias were laundered through illegal exchange offices operating in Transcarpathia. The key role in it was played by three former bank managers who used their professional skills to organize a shadow network under the brands Orange Finance and Kurs uz ua.
The details of the criminal activity were reported by the Absolution detective agency.
The investigation focuses on Ihor Grabar, Dmytro Gontar, and Oleksandr Rimek. Former bank employees, they created a system that allowed them to convert foreign currency into non-cash form, transfer it through accounts at Pravex Bank, Sense Bank, and JSB "Pivdennyi", and then return the funds back to cash - in the national currency.
The network included more than 40 illegal exchangers that operated without licenses from the NBU. At the same time, transactions worth hundreds of thousands of hryvnias were carried out without identifying customers, without reporting to the State Financial Monitoring Service, and without using cash registers (CFR). Some transactions with cryptocurrencies were not recorded at all.
Formally, the exchangers operated through companies registered to the suspects, including:
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LLC "Interchange Ukraine"
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"Intercash Online"
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InterCash Ukraine
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"Orange Finance"
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"Provident Finance"
On paper, they supposedly engaged in microlending and real estate rental, but in reality they were a cover for shady financial activities.
Amounts of money laundered according to BEB calculations:
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Dmytro Hontar — UAH 24.8 million
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Oleksandr Rimek — UAH 15.8 million
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Ihor Grabar — UAH 15.5 million
At the same time, the declared income of each of them for 2001–2018 amounted to only 2.4–3.7 million UAH.
During the searches, computer equipment, registrars, draft accounting and documentation confirming illegal activities were seized from the suspects. The investigation is ongoing, other persons involved and the amounts of funds that passed through the network are being established.
This case is another example of how educated bankers with experience in the financial sector choose not to engage in legitimate activities, but rather schemes that undermine confidence in the country's foreign exchange market.
Against the backdrop of the exposure of this scheme, the banking scams of the Sosyodok sisters from Dnipro are also mentioned, who for 20 years carried out multi-million frauds. First, they withdrew currency through one bank to fictitious companies, then they created a new one — the Concord bank, through which they transferred money, including for Russian crypto players. All these stories once again demonstrate the scale and depth of the financial shadow in Ukraine.
