BES reveals scheme of thousands of individuals legalizing millions of hryvnias per day
10 March 2025 12:42
Detectives of the Bureau of Economic Security, based on data received from the Bureau’s analysts and with the assistance of the National Bank of Ukraine, exposed a group of people who organized the work of illegal processing centers. This was reported by the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine, according to
The offenders’ offices operated in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Zhytomyr, Kremenchuk, and Kryvyi Rih. Their daily turnover could reach UAH 5 million of cashless turnover using drop card accounts.
How the criminal scheme worked
The investigation established that the offenders set up an automated replenishment of online casino players’ gambling accounts through p2p transfers to card drop accounts. In addition, the group was engaged in legalization of funds received from the organization of gambling. In particular, they transferred them to the accounts of controlled individual entrepreneurs, transferred them to other dropships, and bought USDT cryptocurrency on P2P platforms. The centers also made payments to online casino players.
The organizers established a constant flow of individuals – drops. They provided their personal data for a fee to open bank accounts. In addition, detectives identified about 4 thousand individuals whose bank accounts were used without their knowledge.
The Bureau found that non-cash funds in the amount of UAH 500 to UAH 30,000 per transaction were credited to the drop accounts. Each account accumulated about UAH 150,000 per month, which was further used for illegal activities.
Office employees could manage 450 drop accounts from one mobile device. And they could process up to UAH 5 million of cashless funds per day.
To do this, they installed online banking applications, messengers and virtual private networks (VPNs), used remote access and masked financial transaction routes.
What law enforcement officers found
During the searches in the offenders’ office centers and residences in Kyiv, Kotsiubynske, Zhytomyr, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, Kremenchuk, Kharkiv, as well as in Zhytomyr and Poltava regions, the BES detectives seized about 400 mobile devices, 50 pieces of computer equipment (laptops and desktop computers), approximately 5,000 SIM cards of mobile operators, 500 bank cards of individuals, applications for opening bank accounts from individuals, etc.
Mostly, bank accounts were opened in Monobank, A-Bank, FUIB, Izibank, Vostok Bank, Globus Bank, Sense Bank, Kredobank, MTB Bank, Privatbank, OTP Bank, and Ukrgasbank. The IP addresses used to connect to the Internet in most cases belonged to Turkish providers.
The BES detectives worked together with the NBU, whose employees helped to identify the card accounts of the individual dropouts and suspicious transactions. In addition, the NBU and the BES helped to identify locations of mobile communication terminals used for tax evasion and money laundering.
The pre-trial investigation in the criminal proceedings on the grounds of criminal offenses under three articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is currently underway: “Illegal activities in the organization or conduct of gambling, lotteries”, “Evasion of taxes, duties (mandatory payments)”, “Legalization (laundering) of proceeds of crime”.
The NBU is trying to counteract illegal financial schemes
Starting from February 1, 2025, the National Bank has introduced new restrictions on money transfers between individuals to combat the shadow economy.
The limits apply to card transfers from customers without documented income.
For customers with a high level of risk:
the limit for transfers is set at UAH 50 thousand per month.
For customers with medium and low risk level:
from February 1, 2025 – up to UAH 150 thousand per month;
from June 1, 2025 – up to UAH 100 thousand per month.
As a reminder, starting from October 1, 2024, the National Bank introduced restrictions on outgoing transfers from bank cards (p2p) – their amount cannot exceed UAH 150,000 per month. The regulator explained its actions by counteracting drops, i.e. customers who provide their bank accounts for the illegal activities of others.
on December 10, 2024, seven of Ukraine’s largest banks signed a memorandum introducing limits on card-to-card transfers and enhanced monitoring for individuals and individual entrepreneurs. Subsequently, 23 more banks and 2 financial companies signed the memorandum.
In an interview with Forbes in mid-February, NBU Governor Andriy Pyshny said that the NBU intends to evaluate the effectiveness of banks’ actions within one to two months, and if their actions to prevent drops prove effective, the NBU will lift the UAH 150,000 limit on card transfers.
The official also emphasized that banks should improve their internal control systems themselves, use a risk-based method and carefully analyze their customers’ transactions for potential illegal activities.
At the same time, according to Andriy Pyshnyi, the NBU is aware that limits alone cannot solve the problem of drops: only a comprehensive solution in the form of changes in legislation and the introduction of a special drops register will help.
