The shadow market and iBox: how the terminals of schemer Alyona Dehrik-Shevtsova were used for drug trafficking

The shadow market and iBox: how the terminals of schemer Alyona Dehrik-Shevtsova were used for drug trafficking

Drug dealers selling drugs through "dead drops" have been accepting payments through iBox terminals for several years — it is now known why law enforcement agencies were aware of this but preferred not to intervene.

In addition to participating in a money laundering scheme involving casinos, for which the SSU announced suspicion against iBox Bank’s head Alyona Shevtsova and other management representatives on July 18, the said institution and its leadership could also be involved in laundering money from drug trafficking. "Informators Ukraine" learned this from its sources in law enforcement agencies. There is a possibility that charges regarding this may be brought against iBox Bank shortly. We found out how drug trafficking currently operates, where iBox terminals fit in, and how the bank, which found itself at the center of public attention, could facilitate drug dealers.

Modern Drug Selling Scheme: Dead Drops, Telegram Chats, iBox Terminals

Older generations remember from TV plots and newspaper articles of the past the fight against drug dens. Back then, the police, specifically the department for combating illegal drug trafficking, which existed within its structure, weekly provided journalists with information bulletins about the disclosure of certain dens or places of illegal substance distribution. But now there are almost no dens, drug trade is conducted via the internet, completely anonymously. This critically complicates the work of law enforcement.

How does this new scheme work? The consumer, that is, the drug addict, sees a drawing on the fence with the internet site address or a Telegram chat where the dealer can be contacted. In the chat, they receive instructions on where to transfer money for the "goods". When the money reaches the seller, they inform the buyer in the same chat where to find the drugs. This is usually some kind of stash just on the street — a dead drop. This word is already well known.

How did the buyer transfer money to the seller? Of course, through iBox terminals — as long as they were operational.

What is the main advantage of this scheme for the criminal world? Anonymity. Through "clients", that is, addicts, the police can never reach those who produce or sell the "potion" because the "clients" have never seen their sellers and have no idea who these people are.

There is only one vulnerable spot — money transfer. It cannot be completely anonymous. The money recipient — whether an individual or a legal entity — can somehow be identified. But this is only provided that:

        1. The "client" was detained, for example, during the search for a dead drop;

        2. They agreed to tell where they transferred the money for the received drugs.

But drug sales system now works in such a way that even tracking a money transfer does not always help find drug manufacturers or sellers. Especially if the financial institution making the transfers openly facilitates this system. Let’s delve deeper.

What a Typical Ukrainian Drug Network Looks Like

In a common modern drug business scheme, four important links can be highlighted:

1. Drop creators. They receive drugs by post, already portioned. Their task is to find places for the drops, place the "goods" there, take a photo of the stash spots, indicate its geolocation, and then send it to the seller. They are not related to the money — they usually receive a salary based on the number of drops and fines if a drop was found by outsiders.

2. Sellers (they generally have no contact with either drugs or money) have the coordinates of the drops and simply send them in chats to drug addicts in exchange for money that the latter transfers through terminals.

3. Packers receive large batches of drugs from suppliers and pack them by "doses" somewhere in an apartment, and then send them to drop creators, usually by package.

4. Wholesalers or suppliers — this is already the highest link: those who transport large batches of drugs. Often they produce them — thus, somewhere drug labs operate.

Of course, this complex system has leaders. They are the ones looking for "grass" supply channels, selecting people for work, and controlling this work. They receive the main income.

But since the scheme is quite complex and a lot of money moves in different directions, the scheme must have a financial shoulder. That is, financiers who control fund inflows, salary payments, and also laundering the money earned on drugs.

What’s important about this scheme? The people involved in it usually don’t know each other. The drug addict is not familiar with the drop creator, the drop creator with the seller, the seller with the packer, and the latter might also not know the wholesaler and other participants. So if someone gets caught, be it a buyer or a drop creator (they most often get caught by the police), it will have no consequences for the scheme as a whole.

Both the buyer and the seller are interested in there being no visible connection between them. The sales sector doesn’t know the names of the drop creators or the buyers. Both drop creators and buyers receive money through a self-service terminal. At the same time, the payments, of course, do not specify what the payment was made for. In fact, these are transfers without mentioned purposes, which also complicates their tracking by law enforcement agencies.

How iBox Terminals Helped Sell Drugs

As we have already noted, there is one narrow spot in the scheme: money transfers. Money cannot be credited to the leader of the scheme’s personal account or to his financier because any arrested drug addict could indicate whose account he made the transfer to.

That is, some kind of transfer scheme is needed to ensure the recipient’s anonymity. Usually, banks do not assist here. Transfer information is reliably hidden from outsiders. But at the request of fiscal or law enforcement agencies, it can be obtained. This is precisely what complicates the interaction of drug addicts and drug dealers.

Imagine the situation: a drug addict ordered "grass" through a chat. For this, he transferred money, but of course, not to the seller, but to an account of some fictitious company. The seller must indicate the location of the drop. But how will the seller quickly receive confirmation that the money has really gone through?

And here iBox came to the rescue. It developed a system that made the task of drug traffickers much easier. That is why most payments for drugs went through iBox terminals for years.

How did this work? Very simple!

The software developed by iBox Bank allowed getting information on any transfers just by the transaction ID. Not only theirs but any. Nothing else was needed to obtain this information — just 16 digits from the receipt in the terminal. Which, of course, contradicts modern banking practices since anyone can get information about your transfers by randomly picking codes. But this suited the clients, meaning Ukrainian drug cartels.

The software developed by iBox Bank allowed obtaining information on any transfers just by the transaction ID. It’s impossible to say that the mentioned scheme didn’t raise questions from anyone. According to open data, over the past two years, iBox received several fines from the NBU and 28 fines from the VISA payment system.

The NBU financiers even mentioned in interviews with Forbes that interest in the operations of iBox Bank under the leadership of Dehrik-Shevtsova arose back in 2015 when suspicions arose that something else might be hidden behind transactions related to the computer game World of Tanks.

Interestingly, iBox virtually took no percent in its favor for all these schemes. Thus, it facilitated drug turnover almost on a charitable basis. But, of course, iBox had profits. Thus, let’s examine what exactly was this income.

What was iBox Bank’s Income in Drug Schemes

The situation is that cash money and non-cash are two parallel realities that are increasingly drifting apart. For example, legislation has long limited "withdrawals" — that is, the conversion of electronic money into cash. In recent years, the government has also begun to strictly limit cash turnover. Thanks to a nearly infinite amount of cash, iBox Bank successfully solved the problem of moving money from one reality to another.

Cash remains a valuable tool in corruption schemes due to the inability to track it. For example, to pay a kickback for a dishonest tender, a corrupt official needs cash, as its movement cannot be tracked. Additionally, finding cash in large volumes is quite difficult.

But let’s say you need 10 million in "cash". Or 100 million. For your shadow schemes... Where do you find such a number of bills?

And it was very convenient that iBox terminals existed. Because the terminal system of this institution could generate several cubic meters of cash per day. Owners of this network could prepare any amount of cash without issues.

On the shadow market, the commission for withdrawals can now be 20%. And this refers to large amounts of money. So here’s the income for iBox — it lies precisely in this area.

Why the State Ignored iBox Abuses for Many Years and What Alyona Dehrik-Shevtsova and Her Husband Have to Do with It

If you look at iBox Bank precisely from this angle, it becomes clear that, firstly: it is not a real banking institution. Thus, it never became a real bank.

Secondly, it’s clear that facilitation by financial institutions of operations like drug trafficking or those same casinos should have interested the NBU, fiscal, and law enforcement agencies. And not now, but 5 or 10 years ago, when the characteristic pink-and-white terminals began to appear en masse across the country.

By the way, the competent authorities were indeed interested — because they were difficult not to notice. But somewhat without enthusiasm.

The reason is probably hidden in the secrets of Alyona Dehrik-Shevtsova’s biography, who formally headed the bank in 2019. But in fact, most likely was connected with this project from its beginning.

Much is written online about Dehrik-Shevtsova (she’s just Shevtsova now). In particular, there are many naively complimentary texts. Even more photos.

Another type of material is journalistic investigations, based on which a complete picture of the scheme described in this text and several others can be formed. In particular, how casino money was laundered.

Significantly, Dehrik-Shevtsova fought against materials of the second type. She constantly filed lawsuits, demanded that media outlets delete inconvenient texts. It is known about decisions to retract information in favor of iBox Bank, obtained by such media projects as "Korespondent" and "Apostrophe". "Apostrophe" even deleted material about the Shevtsovs family’s connections with business in ORDLO (currently, it remains accessible in the cache).

And, for example, a court case against the Mind.ua publication, which traced Dehrik’s family ties with Russian business connections, was won by the editorial board, although it reached the Supreme Court.

By the way, at that time Mind.ua linked the surprising success of Dehrik-Shevtsova with the status of her husband Yevhen Shevtsov. In recent years, Shevtsov worked in various positions in the National Police, particularly in the National Police Directorate of Kharkiv Region, and also in the Podolsk National Police Directorate of Kyiv.

A few years ago, Shevtsov participated in a competition for a leadership position in the State Bureau of Investigations. But then anti-corruption activists and journalists intervened, pointing out that the appearance of Shevtsov’s name on the list of winners meant that the selection of candidates for the SBI was non-transparent.

In 2019, well-known journalist and president of the Ukrainian Press Academy, Valeriy Ivanov, stated that there were searches in his house and that they occurred precisely on Shevtsov’s orders. The reason he named was that his son Denys Ivanov, head of a PR agency and founder of the Facebook group ACAB UA, conducted an investigation concerning candidates for key positions in law enforcement agencies, publishing critical posts about Shevtsov and his wife and also revealing photographs of their expensive property.

Photo: Yevhen Shevtsov and Alyona Dehrik-Shevtsova

In the same 2019, Yevhen Shevtsov achieved the blocking of 18 internet resources through the Pechersk Court, including the "Korresondent" website, where critical publications about him and his wife appeared. Judge Vovk, known by everyone, handled the case.

It’s not hard to assume that it was precisely due to Shevtsov’s influence that their family business remained untouched until October 2022, when the SSU and the Bureau of Economic Security began active investigative actions against the bank, initially due to tax evasion. 

The case took a particularly rapid turn in the spring of 2023. At the end of February, Dehrik-Shevtsova wrote a statement on resigning as the chairman of the supervisory board of the bank, on March 7, the NBU revoked the financial institution’s license, and on March 10, the National Security and Defence Council included her financial company LEO in the sanction list. The media reports that cases are being conducted against Shevtsova under three articles: tax evasion by the financial institution, organizing illegal gambling business, and money laundering. Though Dehrik-Shevtsova herself denies this.

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