Known to Ukrainians for its white-pink terminals, “IBOX Bank” has stopped working. The day before, the NBU revoked the financial institution’s license for servicing “shadow” gambling. Now what?
On the evening of March 7, monobank customers received an unexpected message in the mobile application: “IBOX self-service terminals are no longer available for replenishing cash cards.” IBOX is one of the largest networks of self-service terminals in the country, which, in particular, allows you to replenish cash accounts in the popular monobank and does not yet charge a fee for this.
The reason why the terminals stopped accepting cash was the decision of the NBU to revoke the banking license and liquidate IBOX Bank JSC, which owns this network.
Despite this, IBOX reported that the scheduled time for the resumption of the fleet of terminals will be two to three days.
The inconvenience in using the terminals could be the only thing most Ukrainians remember about IBOX Bank, if not for its connection with the illegal gambling business and tax evasion for hundreds of millions of hryvnias.
What is this bank
“IBOX Bank” has been operating in Ukraine since 1993 and has changed its name more than once during this time. In 1990, it was called “Authority”, in 2002-2016 – Agrokombank, and since March 2016 it has received its current name. At first glance, it was a typical small bank that managed to survive the “bank fall” of 2014-2016.
According to the NBU, on January 1, 2023, the assets of IBOX Bank amounted to UAH 4.46 billion, of which a significant part was cash, money in accounts with other banks and the NBU – UAH 1.9 billion or more than 42%.
The bank was not active in the credit market: the portfolio of corporate loans amounted to UAH 554 million, individuals – UAH 5.2 million. In addition, the bank did not actively participate in investments in government bonds: the government’s debt to IBOX is UAH 469 million.
The number of depositors who entrusted money to “IBOX bank” is about 17.8 thousand people. The amount of their deposits and account balances, according to the NBU, is UAH 606.5 million. This entire amount, regardless of the size of each deposit, is compensated by the state to depositors during the liquidation of the institution.
Despite modest performance indicators, according to the results of the crisis year of 2022, IBOX bank turned out to be one of the most profitable private banks in Ukraine. He managed to earn about UAH 600 million in net profit.
The best result among private banks was shown only by Universal Bank, within the framework of which the monobank project operates – UAH 2.4 billion. Commissions, in particular, for settlements in its terminals, helped IBOX to achieve such a result. In 2022, the bank earned more than UAH 1 billion from commissions.
However, it seems that the institution also has a “shadow” source of income, to which it attracts its network of terminals. More on this later.
Who are the owners of “IBOX bank”
The official owners of the bank, according to the NBU, are Vladimir Drobot (73.92% of shares) and Alena Shevtsova (24.98%).
Volodymyr Drobot is a former deputy of the Kyiv City Council from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and co-owner of a number of companies operating in the construction industry in the capital. In 2019, the police suspected his company Gorstroyinvest of embezzling budgetary funds during the construction of bank protection structures and a recreation area along the Rusanovsky Strait for UAH 88 million.
A year earlier, Drobot’s companies allocated UAH 30.5 million for this, however, as it turned out later, it did not carry out any work. Alena Shevtsova can often be seen in the lists of “Fintech toast”. She is the CEO of the LEO Gaming payment system, which specializes in payments for online games and gaming products.
In 2020, Shevtsova came to the attention of Our Money journalists. According to the publication, her husband, National Police investigator Yevgeny Shevtsov, presented her with a room in the center of Kyiv, from which “black registrars” had removed the arrest the day before.
One of the influential persons in “IBOX bank” is Evgeny Berezovsky. In 2016, he became the head of the board of the bank and “started” his own network of self-service terminals IBOX, after which the institution was later renamed.
From the end of 2017 to August 2021, Berezovsky owned 6% of the bank’s shares. According to the interlocutors of the EP in the National Bank, it was Berezovsky who was the main contact person on behalf of the bank, with whom the regulator had a dialogue about IBOX violations, in particular, about lending to related parties.
Prior to the decision of the NBU to liquidate the bank, Berezovsky served as an adviser to the head of the board.
Why did the NBU liquidate “IBOX bank”
The decision to withdraw IBOX bank from the market was preceded by numerous warnings and fines issued by the regulator. In the last two years alone, the NBU issued a warning to the bank for violating the rules of financial monitoring, fined the bank UAH 10 million, and even removed its official.
The last episode, which the National Bank mentions in its decision to liquidate IBOX, may reveal many details about the non-public activities of this bank, in particular, about its involvement in shadow gambling schemes.
According to the regulator, in 2022, seven companies received about UAH 3.5 billion in bank accounts, allegedly for hosting esports and sports poker competitions. At the same time, as the NBU audit showed, these companies did not spend on advertising, although millions of hryvnias were credited to their accounts almost at the time of opening these accounts.
The bank has not verified whether these companies organize eSports tournaments. In particular, whether they have adequate logistics and professional staff, such as judges. In addition, the National Bank, referring to the data of the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and the All-Ukrainian organization “Esports Federation”, claims that these eSports tournaments are gambling in disguise.
“IBOX Bank” is closely connected with the world of e-sports thanks to the company Leo Gaming, co-owner of the bank Alena Shevtsova. The latter, in addition to owning almost a quarter of the bank’s shares, is also the chairman of its supervisory board.
It is unlikely that the bank could confuse the organization of gambling with the holding of eSports competitions. Moreover, it is likely that the bank knowingly participated in schemes that allowed the gambling business to evade taxes.
By the way, Leo Gaming and IBOX once simultaneously received fines from the NBU for violations in the field of financial monitoring. According to the regulator, the bank tried to hide deals with Leo Gaming worth UAH 7.3 billion from the NBU during an audit for compliance with financial monitoring rules.
How the schemes worked
Before the NBU investigation, the role of IBOX Bank in the illegal gambling market was discussed at the temporary investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada on economic security.
On February 28, during a meeting of the temporary commission of inquiry, representatives of the SBU and the Economic Security Bureau (BEB) spoke about the participation of nine Ukrainian banks in schemes that allowed the gambling business to evade taxes.
One of the participants in the meeting told the EP that among these banks, law enforcement officials named the state-owned Ukrgasbank, which the NBU fined UAH 64.6 million, as well as IBOX Bank, which the regulator decided to liquidate.
The latter helped the illegal gambling business with the help of a miscoding scheme. Operations of bank customers have four-digit codes. They allow banks to understand what a person spent money on (flowers, products, appliances) and set cashbacks for certain categories. It also has a gambling code – 7995.
Miscoding consists in the fact that the bank deliberately marked gambling operations with a different code (most often 7994, which is responsible for computer games), so that the illegal organizer of gambling does not have additional tax obligations.
As part of the operation of the schemes, twin sites of licensed gambling operators were used, as well as self-service terminals of the bank, for which settlements were carried out. According to the investigation, the volumes of the IBOX Bank schemes far exceed the UAH 3.5 billion announced in the NBU decision.
“The investigation found that the amount of funds transferred through the bank amounted to almost UAH 20 billion, of which approximately UAH 400 million in taxes were not paid,” BEB said in a statement following the searches at the bank on March 8.
The National Bank estimated the gambling market of Ukraine, legal and illegal, at UAH 144-180 billion per year. According to the investigation, in addition to IBOX Bank, 20 companies controlled by it and licensed gambling operators participated in the scheme.
The temporary investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada unofficially claims that “IBOX bank” was one of the key players in the “black” gambling market. This probably allowed the bank to become profitable in the first year of the conflict.
The only question is why the regulator and law enforcement agencies did not notice the bank’s large-scale schemes for so long.
