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The Hunt for Laguna’s Crypto
Seized Binance crypto wallets and accounts at Revolut, Wise and a Turkish bank in the Delta Bank case. The investigation cites 22,8 billion UAH in damage to the Deposit Guarantee Fund and a “back office” in Kyiv
The investigating judge of the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv granted a motion by a prosecutor from the Office of the Prosecutor General and imposed an arrest on cryptocurrency and electronic money in dozens of Binance wallets, Revolut, Wise, Monese cards, as well as on accounts at Erste Bank and the Turkish Ziraat Bankasi.
Criminal proceeding No. 42026000000000563 was opened on 4 May under part 3 of article 209 of the Criminal Code — legalization of property obtained by criminal means, on an especially large scale.
According to the investigation, in 2012–2015 the chairman of the supervisory board and the owner of a significant share of JSC Delta Bank, together with members of the supervisory board, the management board and the credit committee, carried out economically senseless lending to legal entities: shared addresses of founders, preferential terms, weak or fictitious collateral. The goal, the prosecutor’s office writes, was not the bank’s profit but to cover old loans and withdraw money through non-resident banks. Damage to the state, represented by the Deposit Guarantee Fund, is estimated at approximately 22,8 billion UAH.
Further, according to the motion’s materials, these funds were “laundered” through land, real estate, corporate rights of Ukrainian and foreign companies, securities and cars, registered to nominal persons in Ukraine and abroad. Among the Ukrainian assets the investigation names over 300 hectares of agricultural land and plots for development in Kyiv region, Ivano-Frankivsk region and Chernihiv region, housing and commercial property in Kyiv and likely interests in real estate in occupied Crimea.
This description matches the public portrait of the bank’s former owner, Mykola Laguna. On 20 September 2025 the National Security and Defense Council applied sanctions to him for 10 years by presidential decree No. 694/2025: asset freezes, a ban on capital outflows, trade restrictions. An exception was made only for settlements with the Deposit Guarantee Fund and the State Mortgage Institution.
Earlier Laguna was declared wanted in a case about the withdrawal of more than 76,5 million dollars from the bank; since 2024 he has been internationally wanted and, according to media, essentially lives abroad. The bank itself was declared insolvent in March 2015. The Deposit Fund’s commercial claim for the same 22,8 billion UAH against related parties of the bank is still under appeal review.
After the sanctions, the investigation asserts, the activity did not stop. In Kyiv there allegedly operates a back office where former Delta Bank employees manage the finances of Ukrainian and foreign companies nominally registered to other people. Rent from land, housing and commercial property, according to operational data, provides at least 200 thousand dollars in cash per month without tax reporting. Part is converted into crypto and sent to the wallets of trusted persons, part is reinvested in real estate.
It is these channels that the court froze. The arrest concerns the wallets of eight people on the Binance exchange (Nest Exchange / Nest Clearing and Custody / Nest Trading Limited) — some have two or three accounts, others five or six. Separately, a Revolut card for one of these persons and accounts at Wise, Monese, Erste Bank and Ziraat Bankasi, registered directly to the person the investigation considers the scheme’s organizer, were blocked. 20 July 2026 the investigator recognized these funds as physical evidence.
Media repeatedly wrote that despite moving to Vienna and formally stepping back from affairs, Laguna continues to control a number of assets in Ukraine, including land plots for recreational development in Kyiv, Chernihiv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, as well as real estate objects in occupied Crimea. According to media, a back office headed by Maksym Chernov helps him manage projects in Ukraine, as does the law firm “Biyrait Advocacy,” associated with Denys Tarasiuk — the former director of the legal department of Delta.
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