Ibox Bank owner Elena Shevtsova (Degrik), who became a suspect in the BEB investigation and was sanctioned by the National Security and Defense Council, hopes to return to Ukraine, and perhaps has every reason to do so, given her connections.
The publication “Comments».
The official biography of Elena Shevtsova, born in 1987 in Odessa (née Degrik), speaks of a successful career. She began working at the age of 20 at the investment company Concorde Capital. Igor Mazepa in 2007, but by 2009 she had already started her own business, specifically in the legal field, founding the law firm Leo Partners. Many of Shevtsova's companies would subsequently have the prefix "Leo" in their names, reflecting the name of her firstborn, Lev.
DOSSIER: Igor Mazepa: Investment Shark or "Disguised Millionaire," Con Man and Cultist. PART 1
According to Forbes Ukraine, Elena Shevtsova developed her recipe for success in 2010, founding the financial company LeoGaming, which specialized in financial settlements and payments in video games. The company later even acquired its own eSports team. However, Elena Shevtsova's true success came after creating her own "triad": the payment system LeoGaming Pay (now Leo), the iBox payment terminal network, and iBoxBank itself.
The latter, incidentally, is one of the oldest in Ukraine, operating since 1993 and receiving its current name in the mid-2010s. It's worth noting that although Olena Shevtsova herself was the "face" of Ibox Bank, according to the NBU, she owned a maximum of 24,98% of the financial institution and chaired the supervisory board. Nevertheless, she managed the banking institution's business, and it must be said, she did so with more than success. The bank's net profit soared from UAH 5,2 million in 2019 to UAH 598,3 million by the end of 2022. However, in March 2023, this idyllic picture was shattered by agents of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB).
Ibox Bank's dire straits became clear in March 2023, when the NBU revoked its license on March 7, and on the 8th, the SBU and the Economic Security Service raided the financial institution. A press release from the security service reported that the Kyiv-based bank had carried out a scheme to launder gambling proceeds. This involved so-called miscoding—a scheme in which banks change payment codes that indicate the transfer of funds to online casinos, such as payments for groceries. This allows them to conceal the transfer of these funds to online casinos, thereby evading taxes. According to the SBU, an unnamed bank transferred funds from the accounts of 20 controlled companies to gambling websites, after which the funds were withdrawn and divided among the participants in the scheme. The bank's annual revenue was 2,5 billion hryvnias, and its annual turnover was 180 billion hryvnias. Although the name Ibox Bank was not mentioned, the phrase about its recent revocation of the NBU license clearly hinted at Elena Shevtsova's creation.
Subscribe to our channel in X, Telegram channel and page in Facebook!
Stay informed about who is doing business, in politics, and supporting corruption in Ukraine!
A year later, the same Bureau of Economic Security (BEB) was no longer so tactful, announcing that two Ibox Bank department directors had been arrested on suspicion of laundering 5 billion hryvnias for illegal online casinos. Furthermore, three more individuals, including the bank's co-owner, were placed on the wanted list. The latter, however, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs database, was made as early as March 8, 2023.
In 2025, the investigation into Elena Shevtsova and Ibox Bank was actively ongoing, and her activities were investigated not only by law enforcement but also by the National Security and Defense Council, which imposed personal sanctions against her on April 12.
The Ibox Bank case was sent to court on July 2. Shevtsova's whereabouts are unknown, but one of the banker's accomplices was detained by Polish law enforcement back in April.
Although Elena Shevtsova's suspicions from law enforcement agencies began to surface in 2023, she had actually been under suspicion for a long time. Back in 2020, the website Mind.ua published an investigation alleging that Elena Shevtsova (Degrik) may have collaborated with an illegal casino. The article claimed that the LeoGaming Pay payment system transferred 262 million hryvnias to the casino and used the Tyme payment system for transactions with Russia. This resulted in threats against the journalist who authored the article, and then a lawsuit to protect her business reputation. Ultimately, however, Elena Shevtsova lost.
In September 2018, a BIHUS Info article about the State Bureau of Investigation competition revealed information about a conflict of interest of then-Deputy Minister of Justice Natalia Bernatskaya.
The official voted to appoint police officer Yevgeny Shevtsov as head of the State Bureau of Investigation's 1st Pre-Trial Investigations Department. Journalists learned that Elena Shevtsova's Leogaming Pay Financial Company LLC had commissioned a legal audit from Integrites, a firm co-owned by Ruslan Bernatsky. This was no coincidence—Yelena Shevtsova was Yevgeny's wife, and Ruslan Bernatsky was the husband of the Deputy Minister of Justice. This was interpreted as a conflict of interest, which Natalya Bernatskaya should have disclosed and recused herself from the position during the vote, but she chose not to.
FC Leogaming Pay was involved in a criminal investigation into money laundering and transferring it to Russia. It's unclear whether this played a decisive role in the competition, but Yevhen Shevtsov never received a position in the State Bureau of Investigation. However, this hardly upset the deputy head of the Main Investigative Department of the National Police, who was Ukraine's richest police officer until 2021. With a personal salary of 412 UAH in 2020, his family's income, thanks to Olena Shevtsova, exceeded 90 million UAH, with another 94 million UAH coming from financial assets. Yevhen Shevtsov's asset declaration also indicates Olena Shevtsova's high salary: 143,7 million UAH in 2021 and 58,3 million UAH in 2022. But to claim that Yevgeny Shevtsov is simply a front for his wife would be wrong, as best illustrated by the case of Alexandra Ustinova, a member of parliament from the Voice party.
For example, in 2020, after news broke of a gift of a non-residential building in the capital to Elena Shevtsova, Alexandra Ustinova declared that Yevgeny Shevtsov was unworthy of the rank of officer. In response, she faced insults on social media, and an internal investigation revealed that the cop's account had been hacked before the insults against the politician were posted.
50 MPs demanded that the then Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov Instead, in August 2021, the MP's property was seized to secure the payment of 80 hryvnias in moral damages to Yevhen Shevtsov. It's likely that Yevhen Shevtsov was so needed in his position by the leadership of the National Police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs that even the scandal with the MPs didn't lead to his removal.
Interestingly, Arsen Avakov resigned as head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs back in July, but this had no impact on the career of Elena Shevtsova's husband. According to Shevtsova's own asset declaration, it wasn't until 2024 that he rose from deputy head of the National Police's Department for the Protection of Public and State Interests to become a senior detective in one of its departments.
However, Elena Shevtsova's connections aren't limited to her husband, and they likely began with her activities in the early 2010s. According to some websites, at that time she was involved in politics and headed the "Young Regions" in Kyiv, the youth wing of the banned Party of Regions.
Indeed, a blog post by Elena Shevtsova from 2013, published on the Liga website, calls for participation in the "I Have an Idea" project. It's worth noting that the "Young Regions" project list did indeed include the same slogan, "I Have an Idea." Information can be found online that Elena Shevtsova was an active partner of former head of the State Tax Service Roman Nasirov in money laundering. It was Nasirov who allegedly pushed through the NBU's decision to register the Leo payment system.
Finally, Elena Shevtsova may have established an acquaintance with former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, thanks to the help of the closed-end non-diversified corporate venture investment fund Leo Invest Group. In October 2021, it was registered by her and businessman Vladimir Belousov, and exactly one year later, the former Ukrainian president replaced Shevtsova as co-owner of the fund.
Elena Shevtsova actively used her husband's electronic declaration to legalize her own income. For example, since 2017, Yevgeny Shevtsov's electronic declaration periodically includes a certain Yulia Nikulina, who, according to the declaration, simply gifts Elena Shevtsova millions of hryvnias:
- in 2017 it was 3 million UAH;
- in 2019 only 240 thousand hryvnias;
- in 2020 it was 2,9 million UAH;
- in 2021 and 2024, UAH 1,5 million each.
In total, Elena Shevtsova received a gift of 9,140,000 hryvnias from her fellow countrywoman. Media outlets identified Odesa resident Yulia Nikulina, who, in addition to her business, was a co-owner of several companies. For example, International Payments LLC (providing information services, with a statutory capital of 10,000 hryvnias), which is now in bankruptcy proceedings.
As early as November 3, 2015, the company, along with other firms, became a defendant in criminal case No. 12015000000000601. According to investigators, $10,1 million passed through the accounts of this and other LLCs and was subsequently transferred abroad, to the benefit of LEO PARTNERS LIMITED (British Limited (Cyprus)). As you can see, the names of the companies strangely coincide with the name of the law firm "Leo Partners," founded by Elena Shevtsova back in 2009.
Of course, one could assume that it was simply a coincidence of names. But why would the co-owner of a company involved in the investigation transfer millions of hryvnias to the owner of a firm with such a similar name? Did she perhaps intend to launder some of the money thus obtained from a company owned by a trusted person, Yulia Nikulina?! Even more interesting is criminal case No. 42017000000002925, which the SBU has been investigating since 2017.
This is interesting. They are complaining to Google about this. Skeleton.Org:
- Ibox Bank owner Alena Shevtsova has been placed on an international wanted list.
- Sanctions against Andriy Matyukha, or why FAVBET is untouchable
- Ivan Rudy, head of KRAIL, ignores the Russian origins of Igor Zotko's Pin-Up casino.
- Roosh IG owner Sergey Tokayev and his ties to Russia
- Yakov Finkelstein's Slots City: The Russian Connection
- Anatoly Shkriblyak: A Small Giant of Big Corruption. Part 1
- Vadim Ermolaev: Dnepropetrovsk's King of Thieves, Cognacs, and Smuggling. Part 1
- Auto scammers from Odessa have opened a new used car business in Moldova.
- Activist Gusakov received funds through "drops" and withdrew them through casinos, sources say.
- The Khimprom drug cartel's major showdown
- Scandal in Ukraine: Soft2Bet's legal problems reveal the true value of MEGA
- Untouchable FAVBET: When will Zelenskyy impose sanctions against Andriy Matyukha?
According to investigators, a network of commercial entities, using various payment systems, including Elena Shevtsova's LeoGaming Pay, allowed clients to play then-prohibited gambling games, specifically through the Parimatch online casino. Incidentally, the SBU estimates that the laundered funds in the criminal case amounted to $350 million. The list of companies used to launder criminal proceeds includes FC Business Retail Group (currently Chinau LLC), which was owned by Yulia Nikulina until December 2021.
Interestingly, the Economic Security Service claimed that pressure was exerted on the Elena Shevtsova trial, suggesting she has significant connections, which, however, have not yet materialized. Shevtsova's case lives on thanks to Artem Lyashanov's bill_line. Given this reputation and the large amount of information about Elena Shevtsova, the disappearance of some materials from the media seems odd. For example, investigations into Ibox Bank and Elena Degrik-Shevtsova regarding Nazariy Gusakov's transfers through Shevtsova's financial structures disappeared from the RBC-Ukraine website. After the article's publication, journalists reported pressure on them involving IBOX BANK and LeoGaming, and after a month and a half, the articles began disappearing.
This may mean that Elena Shevtsova herself still hopes to return to Ukraine, and may even already be in the negotiations stage.
She may be motivated by a desire to return to the business of her former subordinate, now an independent player in the specialized financial services market—Artem Lyashanov and his bill_line payment system. Officially, Artem Lyashanov is a financial genius, who, at 34, has 15 years of experience in the financial sector. His main business is the bill_line payment system, which provides online banking services for businesses. The legal entity is Tech-Soft Atlas LLC (specializing in information services, with a statutory capital of UAH 3,1 million).
Interestingly, as of July 27, 2022, Odessa resident Andriy Morgun became the company's owner. It might seem like a no-brainer. However, Lyashanov resigned as the company's founder just as criminal case No. 42021100000000283 was being investigated, in which Tech-Soft Atlas LLC was implicated as a possible participant in money laundering schemes. According to investigators, a certain Spektr Alfa LLC entered into contracts with various companies for the provision of fictitious IT services. These funds were subsequently transferred to the accounts of the fictitious companies.
As a result, Spektr Alfa lost UAH 150 million in 2020-2021, while the state budget lost UAH 11 million in taxes. Interestingly, one of the fictitious companies involved in this scheme is Hunter 2023 LLC (an agency specializing in media advertising, with a statutory capital of UAH 7 million), which conducted transactions for the online casino Parimatch. Parimatch is also mentioned in criminal case No. 42017000000002925, in which Yulia Nikulina, the donor of Elena Shevtsova's millions, is listed as the owner of Financial Company Business Retail Group LLC (now Chinau LLC). However, it's possible these are entrepreneurs who simply work in the same industry and for the same clients.
Well, that may be true, but Artem Lyashanov not only knows Elena Shevtsova, he worked for her in 2017. This is confirmed by the program of participants at Fintech Ukraine 2017, an event that brings together Ukrainian financiers: eight years ago, Artem Lyashanov, listed as the CTO (technical director) of Elena Shevtsova's LeoGaming, was among the meeting's participants. It's possible that her former subordinate, with his bill_line, is actively occupying the niche of specialized services previously provided by Elena Shevtsova, and she has decided to return, having reached an agreement with law enforcement, judges, and the media, and is actively working to "cleanse" her reputation.
Skelet.Org
RBC-Ukraine filed a police report for obstructing journalistic work.
Subscribe to our channels in Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, VC — Only new faces from the section CRYPT!