Detectives from the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BES), together with SBU officers, exposed a criminal scheme involving officials of IBOX BANK, more than 20 business entities controlled by it, and gambling business operators.

According to the BES press service, the banking institution probably contributed to the gambling business in tax evasion on an especially large scale. The amount of unpaid taxes by the enterprises is UAH 400 million.

"The tax evasion scheme was set up due to controlled unlicensed mirror web resources of Internet casinos and betting. They were set up to accept payments using "miscoding" and broken money transfers," the report says.

It clarifies that in order to replenish accounts, cash was deposited through self-service terminals to the accounts of gambling business operators, even in cases of excess turnover. These companies are on a simplified taxation system and are not registered as VAT payers.

"The investigation found that the amount of funds transferred through the bank totaled about UAH 20 billion, of which approximately UAH 400 million were not paid in taxes," the bureau emphasizes.

They add that in order to obtain an evidence base, the BES, together with the SBU and the National Bank, are conducting large-scale searches in the bank's premises, offices, and places of residence of the defendants.

Employees of the SBU, together with BES detectives, are conducting searches in the offices of the bank and companies controlled by it. These actions take place within the framework of criminal proceedings initiated under Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (evasion of taxes, fees (mandatory payments) and Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of power or official position).