Ukraine's State Financial Monitoring Service, together with international financial intelligence units, is investigating a scheme to launder proceeds from fraud and crypto fraud in European countries, the agency's head, Filip Pronin, said on Telegram on Friday.
He said more than UAH 2.5 billion in criminal proceeds passed through a group of companies involved in the scheme. Analysis of foreign transactions and national data made it possible to identify the organizers, the sources of the funds, and their subsequent movement, which was managed directly from Kyiv, including through the account of a European company linked to a Ukrainian woman's email address, and a resident company headed by a Ukrainian citizen.
A check of the suspect against Ukrainian databases showed that one bank had previously terminated its relationship with him over a debt of UAH 250,000, which was later handed to debt collectors, and that he is currently in hiding from an investigation into a case of illegally smuggling people across the border. Materials on the criminal organization, which specializes in cryptocurrency fraud, have already been handed over to law enforcement.
The head of the State Financial Monitoring Service stressed that transactions involving virtual assets remain the hardest to trace due to the lack of regulation and transparent oversight mechanisms in Ukraine, but said such schemes are nonetheless successfully uncovered through analysis of financial flows, links between companies, and owners' digital footprints.
