Billions in Casinos, Criminal Cases, and a Shell Bank: How Aliona Shevtsova Built the LEO Empire on IBOX BANK

Alona Shevtsova and her payment system LEO remained in the shadows of IBOX BANK's loud “successes” for a long time.

In reality, the bank became a convenient tool for pumping billions from illegal online casinos, and Shevtsova herself and her companies figure in dozens of criminal cases—from money laundering to fictitious entrepreneurship. After a series of investigations, information about these schemes is actively being scrubbed. We publish this material in full—to remind how the system operated and what they are trying to erase from the network.

A year ago, IBOX BANK was headed by Alona Shevtsova, and ahead of this anniversary the media published articles claiming that, thanks to her activity, the bank’s cases had dramatically risen.

Indeed, by the results of last year the bank ranked eighth among Ukraine’s most profitable banks. Which, in the context of the war in Ukraine, looked like a good indicator.

Going a bit further, we note that all this tumultuous activity led to 7 March 2023, when IBOX BANK was left without a license—NBU decided to liquidate the bank for “systematic violations of financial monitoring requirements.”

And the bank’s “successes” were linked to the energetic activity of Alona Shevtsova, who, as evidenced by seemingly commissioned materials, through her professionalism managed to pull IBOX BANK out of a financial abyss.

However, in openly commissioned articles, some nuances of Shevtsova’s professional and career growth are omitted, which lead not to a prize of “Banker of the Year,” but to a fairly considerable stretch in places not so distant.

Because the last year’s success is explained by the fact that Shevtsova needed a personal bank for the payment system LEO, which she owns. And this is connected to the story of IBOX BANK’s success (and subsequent fall).

Note: Alona Shevtsova launched the financial company “Leogaming Pay” in 2013 year. Initially, Alona V.’s business was not a full-fledged payment system. It was more like a gateway between players and gaming platforms. But the business grew rapidly, and by 2017 year Shevtsova registered domestically in the National Bank a payment system “Leo,” which a few years later became international.

And it is with this payment system, owned by LLC “Leo Financial Company,” that dozens of cases involve IBOX BANK.

IBOX BANK appeared 31 year— 1993-th. It bore a somewhat ominous name then—the bank “Authority.” Only 2002-th owners renamed it to “Agrokombank,” and it became “AIBOX Bank” a few 14 years later, 2016-th, after a financier with a murky reputation, Yevhen Berezovskiy, joined the shareholders. With him came a network of iBox payment terminals, which gave the bank its new name.

However, this did not help the bank—it was sliding toward the abyss. But then Shevtsova appeared on the horizon, needing a pocket bank to develop her own payment system LEO. 2020 year she became a shareholder of the bank, and 2022 she headed it. She brought management from her own companies, of which she has several, and the relationship system between them is very tangled.

But the point is that all these companies are defendants in a whole series of criminal cases related to corruption, illegal money withdrawal, and servicing illegal online casinos. For this, in fact, the LEO gaming payment system was devised back in 2013 year.

At present, despite the difficulty of working with court registries during full-scale war, it is known that Alona Shevtsova or the managers of companies in which she is a beneficiary figure in the following criminal proceedings:

- No. 32013110000000298, Article 369 of the Criminal Code “Proposition, promise or provision of an improper benefit to a public official”; - No. 32017100000000066, Article 205 of the Criminal Code “Fictitious entrepreneurship,” Article 190 of the Criminal Code “Fraud,” Article 212 “Tax evasion (mandatory payments)”; - No. 42017000000002925, Article 209 “Legalization (laundering) of property acquired by crime,” Article 205 Criminal Code “Fictitious entrepreneurship”; - No. 42018101060000202, Article 190 “Fraud,” Article 361 “Unauthorized interference in the operation of information (automated), electronic, information and communication systems”; - No. 42019000000000526, Article 171 “Obstruction of lawful professional activity of journalists,” Article 182 “Violation of privacy,” Article 255 “Creation, management of a criminal community or organization, and participation in it,” Article 368-2 “Illegal enrichment,” Article 387 “Disclosure of data of investigative activities.” In this “bouquet,” the main defendant was Shevtsova’s husband, high-ranking police officer Yevhen Shetsov.

As you can see, a solid set. Some criminal cases are closed, others are still under investigation. Well, as ‘investigated,’ as in our country, where money bags are involved—cases hang in the Unified State Register of Court Cases but move slowly toward dismissal or closure.

About what is happening at IBOX BANK under Alona Shevtsova’s leadership, statements from court decisions found in registries say the following.

22.01.2022 Goloseevskyi District Court of Kyiv did not find administrative offense in the actions of the officials of PJSC “Aibox Bank,” who, in response to a request as part of an NABU on-site inspection regarding countering money laundering of proceeds obtained by crime, concealed 7,5 billion UAH in transactions with LLC “Financial Company Leogaming Pay,” and only the bank officials tried to conceal transactions totaling over 14 billion UAH, plus did not provide information about merchants under certain MCC codes.

2021 In the year Financial Company “Leogaming Pay” sued for 100 000 UAH in compensation to journalists for publishing false information that harms business reputation. The “false information” was a publication from 28.10.2020 under the headline: “Pro-Russian Telegram channels ‘Resident’ and ‘Legitimate’ protect illegal business,” which contained the quote: “the company LLC ‘FK ‘Leogaming Pay’ last year processed through itself 262 million UAH in transfers to replenish and fund illegal online casinos and bookmakers.”

The court ruling contains a fine phrasing: “The plaintiff was allowed to attach to the case materials a list of all counterparties (conducting and publication as required by law in the field of financial activity) with whom the Limited Liability Company ‘Financial Company Leogaming Pay’ maintains business relations. Among the specified counterparties are National Joint-Stock Company AB ‘Ukrgasbank,’ Kyivsparkingserv, Kharkivparkserv, PJSC ‘PF Ukraine,’ Kyivstar, PJSC ‘Family Bank,’ Chernihiv City Council’s Parking and Market Municipal Enterprise, PJSC ‘Aibox Bank,’ PJSC ‘First Investment Bank.’ It is not evident from the list, and the defendant has not proven, that all counterparties or any of them are connected with gambling, in particular illegal online casinos.”

22.06.2022 The same ‘Leogaming’ won another case in the appellate instance, where journalists were forced to remove the ‘false’ publication titled: “Working for the RF, offshore and ‘bulk trading of computers’: how online casinos operate in Ukraine. Alona DegriK Shevtsova), Aibox Bank (ibox terminals) and others – where money from online casinos in Ukraine goes.”

The journalists were also want to be forced to pay another one million hryvnias of “moral compensation,” but the court refused to satisfy this part of the claim.

As part of the above, an interesting story is the fine from the NBU that IBOX BANK received in October 2021 for improper client verification and violation of the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention and Counteraction to Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime, Financing of Terrorism and Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.”

The bank received the highest fine of all possible ones— 10 million hryvnias. They planned to challenge it in court, but decided to quietly pay 10 million instead, perhaps realizing that billions could be lost.

By the way, at the same time, for violation of the same law but regarding improper risk management, a fine of 549 thousand hryvnias was imposed on “Leogaming Pay.”

In 2021 year IBOX BANK received a license from the Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries of Ukraine (KRAIL) to accept payments to benefit internet casinos and a license to “conduct activity in the gambling business.” So, on this side, everything seemed normal.

But the recent story of ‘success’ led to a logical end: IBOX BANK was left without a license, and the National Bank made a decision to liquidate it. 8 In March, searches were carried out at IBOX BANK.

The decision to liquidate the bank was made on the same grounds on which IBOX BANK received a fine in October 2021—violations of the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention and Counteraction to Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime, Financing of Terrorists and Financing of Weapons of Mass Destruction.”.

Clearly, two years ago, when the “peace in eyes” of Russia ended, Shevtsova did not understand that the situation had radically changed and a petty fine (in money-laundering scale) would not suffice. And she continued “to rake in the money.”

In light of the above, we await the further dramatic development of the plot. It will be especially interesting to learn about collaboration with the Russian Federation and money withdrawals to Russia through Shevtsova’s payment systems, which IBOX BANK tried so hard to disown just a few days ago.