The owner of Ibox Bank, Alyona Shevtsova (Dehrik), who became a suspect in an investigation by the Bureau of Economic Security and was placed under sanctions by the National Security and Defense Council, hopes to return to Ukraine and may have grounds for this, as her connections reach very high levels.
The official biography of Alyona Shevtsova, who was born in 1987 in Odesa (maiden name Dehrik), describes a successful career. She began working at the age of 20 at Igor Mazepa’s investment company Concorde Capital in 2007, but by 2009 she had already started her own business in the legal field, founding the law firm “Leo Partners.” Subsequently, many of Shevtsova’s companies would carry the “Leo” prefix, explained by the name of her first child — Lev.
According to Forbes Ukraine, Alyona Shevtsova developed her recipe for success in 2010 by founding the financial company LeoGaming, which specialized in financial transactions and payments in video games. Later, the company even acquired its own esports team. However, Shevtsova’s real success came after creating her own “triad”: the payment system LeoGaming Pay (now Leo), the iBox payment terminal network, and Ibox Bank itself.
The latter, incidentally, is one of the oldest banks in Ukraine — operating since 1993 and receiving its current name in the mid-2010s. It is worth noting that although Alyona Shevtsova was the “face” of Ibox Bank, according to the National Bank of Ukraine she owned at most 24.98% of the institution and held the position of Chair of the Supervisory Board. However, she was the one actually managing the bank’s business — and did so very successfully. The bank’s net profit rose from 5.2 million hryvnias in 2019 to 598.3 million hryvnias by the end of 2022. However, in March 2023, this seemingly idyllic picture was shattered by officers of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Bureau of Economic Security
It became clear that things were going very badly at Ibox Bank in March 2023, when on March 7 the National Bank of Ukraine revoked its license, and on March 8 the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB) carried out searches at the financial institution. A statement by the спецслужбы reported that a Kyiv-based bank had implemented a scheme for laundering proceeds from the gambling business. It referred to so-called “miscoding” — a scheme in which banks alter payment codes that indicate transfers to online casinos, disguising them as, for example, payments for groceries. This makes it possible to conceal such transactions and evade taxes. According to the SBU, funds from 20 affiliated companies were transferred by the unnamed bank to gambling websites, after which the money was withdrawn and distributed among the participants in the scheme. The bank’s annual income amounted to 2.5 billion hryvnias, with a turnover of 180 billion hryvnias. Although Ibox Bank was not explicitly named, the reference to the recent revocation of its license clearly pointed to Alyona Shevtsova’s bank.
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A year later, the BEB was far less cautious, stating that two department directors of Ibox Bank had been arrested on suspicion of laundering 5 billion hryvnias for illegal online casinos. Moreover, three other individuals, including a co-owner of the bank, were declared wanted. According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry database, this had in fact been done as early as March 8, 2023.
In 2025, the investigation into Alyona Shevtsova and Ibox Bank was actively ongoing, with not only law enforcement agencies but also the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) involved. On April 12, the NSDC imposed personal sanctions against her.
The Ibox Bank case was referred to court on July 2. Shevtsova’s current whereabouts are unknown, although in April one of her associates was detained by Polish law enforcement.
Although the wave of suspicions from law enforcement fell on Alyona Shevtsova in 2023, she had been under scrutiny long before that. Back in 2020, the outlet Mind.ua published an investigation claiming that Alyona Shevtsova (Dehrik) may have cooperated with an illegal casino. According to the article, the LeoGaming Pay payment system transferred 262 million hryvnias to a casino and used the Tyme payment system to operate with Russia. This led to threats against the journalist who authored the piece and eventually to a lawsuit over protection of business reputation, which Alyona Shevtsova ultimately lost.
In September 2018, an article by BIHUS Info about a competition for positions at the State Bureau of Investigations mentioned a conflict of interest involving then–Deputy Minister of Justice Nataliia Bernatska.
She voted for the appointment of police officer Yevhen Shevtsov as head of the First Pre-Trial Investigations Department of the SBI. Journalists found that Alyona Shevtsova’s company, “Financial Company LeoGaming Pay,” had ordered a legal audit from the firm Integrites, co-owned by Ruslan Bernatskyi. This was not a coincidence — Alyona Shevtsova was Yevhen Shevtsov’s wife, and Ruslan Bernatskyi was the husband of the deputy minister of justice. This was considered a conflict of interest, which Nataliia Bernatska should have disclosed and recused herself from, but she did not.
“Financial Company LeoGaming Pay” was also involved in criminal proceedings related to money laundering and transferring funds to Russia. It is unclear whether this played a decisive role in the competition, but Yevhen Shevtsov ultimately did not receive the SBI position. However, this likely did not trouble the deputy head of the National Police’s Main Investigative Department, who by 2021 was the wealthiest police officer in Ukraine. With a personal salary of 412,000 hryvnias in 2020, his family income — largely thanks to Alyona Shevtsova — exceeded 90 million hryvnias, with an additional 94 million hryvnias in financial assets. His declaration also listed Alyona Shevtsova’s income at 143.7 million hryvnias in 2021 and 58.3 million in 2022. At the same time, it would be incorrect to say that Yevhen Shevtsov was merely a figurehead for his wife, as illustrated by the case involving MP Oleksandra Ustinova from the Holos party.
In 2020, after it became known that Alyona Shevtsova had received a non-residential building in Kyiv as a gift, Oleksandra Ustinova stated that Yevhen Shevtsov was unworthy of holding the rank of officer. In response, she faced insults on social media, while an internal investigation concluded that the police officer’s account had been hacked before the offensive posts about the politician were made.
Fifty members of parliament demanded that then–Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov address the situation. However, in August 2021, the MP’s property was instead seized to ensure payment of 80,000 hryvnias in moral damages to Yevhen Shevtsov. It appears that Shevtsov was considered so valuable to the leadership of the National Police and the Interior Ministry that even a scandal involving dozens of MPs was not enough to remove him from his position.
Interestingly, Arsen Avakov left the post of Minister of Internal Affairs back in July, but this did not affect the career of Alyona Shevtsova’s husband. According to Shevtsov’s own declaration, only in 2024 did he move from deputy head of a department within the National Police’s Department for the Protection of Society and State Interests to a senior operative in one of its divisions.
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However, Alyona Shevtsova’s connections are not limited to her husband, and they likely date back to her activities in the early 2010s. According to some sources, at that time she was involved in politics and headed the “Young Regions” organization in Kyiv — the youth wing of the now-banned Party of Regions.
Indeed, blog archives on the Liga website contain a 2013 post by Alyona Shevtsova calling for participation in the “There Is an Idea” project. Notably, the same slogan was used among the initiatives of “Young Regions.” Online sources also claim that Alyona Shevtsova was an active partner of former head of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov in money-laundering schemes. It is alleged that Nasirov lobbied the National Bank of Ukraine to register the “Leo” payment system.
Finally, Alyona Shevtsova may have established ties with former President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, allegedly facilitated through the “Closed Non-Diversified Corporate Venture Investment Fund ‘Leo Invest Group.’” In October 2021, it was registered by her and businessman Volodymyr Bilousov, and exactly a year later, the former president became a co-owner of the fund, replacing Shevtsova.
Alyona Shevtsova also actively used her husband’s electronic declarations to legitimize her own income. Since 2017, a certain Yuliia Nikulina repeatedly appears in Yevhen Shevtsov’s declarations as a person who simply “gifts” millions of hryvnias to Alyona Shevtsova:
— in 2017: 3 million UAH
— in 2019: 240,000 UAH
— in 2020: 2.9 million UAH
— in 2021 and 2024: 1.5 million UAH each
In total, Shevtsova received 9.14 million UAH in gifts from this individual. Journalists identified Yuliia Nikulina as a resident of Odesa who, in addition to being a sole proprietor, co-owned several companies. One of them, LLC “International Payments” (IT services, charter capital of 10,000 UAH), is currently in bankruptcy.
Since November 3, 2015, this company has been involved in criminal case No. 12015000000000601. According to investigators, $10.1 million passed through its accounts and those of related companies, later transferred abroad in favor of LEO PARTNERS LIMITED (UK/Cyprus). Notably, the name closely resembles Shevtsova’s legal firm “Leo Partners,” founded in 2009.
While this could be a coincidence, it raises questions as to why a co-owner of a company involved in such a case would transfer millions to the owner of a similarly named firm. It suggests a possible attempt to legitimize part of the funds.
Another notable case is criminal proceeding No. 42017000000002925, investigated by the SBU since 2017. According to investigators, a network of commercial entities, using various payment systems including Shevtsova’s LeoGaming Pay, enabled clients to participate in then-illegal gambling, including via the Parimatch online casino. The total amount of laundered funds in this case was estimated at $350 million. Among the companies involved was FC “Business Retail Group” (now LLC “Chinau”), which until December 2021 was owned by Yuliia Nikulina.
Interestingly, the Bureau of Economic Security has claimed that pressure was exerted on the court in Shevtsova’s case, indicating she may have influential connections — although so far they have not yielded results. Meanwhile, her case appears to persist alongside the rise of bill_line, associated with Artem Liashanov.
Against the backdrop of her reputation and the volume of information about her, the disappearance of certain materials from the media space looks unusual. Investigations about Ibox Bank and Alyona Dehrik-Shevtsova were reportedly removed from the RBC-Ukraine website after journalists claimed they faced pressure involving IBOX BANK and LeoGaming. About a month and a half after publication, the articles began to disappear.
This may indicate that Alyona Shevtsova hopes to return to Ukraine, or may already be in negotiations to do so.
One possible motivation is a desire to regain control over business now associated with her former subordinate, Artem Liashanov, and his payment system bill_line. Officially, Lyashanov is presented as a financial prodigy with 15 years of experience by the age of 34. His main business is bill_line, an online banking service for businesses, operated by LLC “Tech-Soft Atlas” (IT services, charter capital of 3.1 million UAH).
Interestingly, since July 27, 2022, the company has been owned by Andriy Morgun, a resident of Odesa. However, Liashanov exited the list of founders precisely when criminal case No. 42021100000000283 was being investigated, in which “Tech-Soft Atlas” was considered a possible participant in money-laundering schemes.
According to investigators, a company called “Spektr Alfa” signed contracts for fictitious IT services, after which funds were transferred to shell companies. Between 2020 and 2021, 150 million UAH passed through these schemes, with 11 million UAH in taxes unpaid.
One of the companies involved, LLC “Hunter 2023” (advertising mediation, charter capital of 7 million UAH), allegedly conducted transactions benefiting the Parimatch online casino. This same casino appears in criminal case No. 42017000000002925, where Yuliia Nikulina — the same individual who gifted millions to Shevtsova — is listed as the owner of “Business Retail Group.”
While it is possible these are simply businesses operating in the same sector, it is notable that Artem Liashanov is not just acquainted with Alyona Shevtsova — he worked for her in 2017. This is confirmed by the Fintech Ukraine 2017 participant list, where he is listed as CTO of Shevtsova’s LeoGaming.
It is possible that her former subordinate, through bill_line, has occupied the niche of specialized financial services previously associated with Shevtsova, and that she is now seeking to return — potentially negotiating with law enforcement, courts, and media, while actively working to rehabilitate her public image.
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