Alena Vladimirovna Shevtsova (Degrik)
Brief biography
Born on December 17, 1987 in Odessa. Education — Faculty of International Law at Kyiv National University, Faculty of Psychology at Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Advanced training at Goethe Institute in Munich.
Career
In 2009 she founded the law firm “LeoPartners”, which provided consultations, including in the field of e-commerce. Later, the company “LeoGaming” was registered, which realized payments for online games.
Now Alena Degrik owns the companies “Leo Partners” LLC, “LeoGaming Pay” LLC, “Aigame” LLC and others. She was an activist of the capital’s branch of the Young Regions movement, the youth wing of the Party of Regions, often sponsoring some of the Young Regions’ public events.
Family
Married to Yevhen Shevtsov, deputy head of the Main Department of the National Police of Ukraine. In 2018, he participated in the competition for the position of head of the department of organization of pre-trial investigations in the State Bureau of Investigation, but did not pass the selection. Journalists suspected that at the disposal of the competition Commission of the GBI was a pre-agreed list of winners, where there was also the name of Shevtsov. Also during the voting there was a conflict of interest: according to the journalists of the project “Bigus.Info”, the firm Integrites, owned by the husband of a member of the competition commission Natalia Bernatska, audited the company “Leogaming Pay”.
Income
According to the 2018 declaration of Degrik’s husband Evgeny Shevtsov, the main assets are recorded exactly on Alena Degrik. She owns an apartment 93.4 square meters worth 1074024 UAH + 62.9 square meters worth 669 975 UAH, Kiev, a land plot. Also Degryk owns non-residential premises 87.8 sq.m worth UAH 1456960, a residential house 349.7 m.2 car, Land Rover Range Rover VOGUE, 2016.
Pressure on the media
According to the media, Eugene Shevtsov and Alena Degryk are regularly engaged in deleting negative publications and replacing them with positive or neutral news. The spouses are also accused of pressurizing the family of a well-known journalist, president of the Academy of Ukrainian Press Valeriy Ivanov. Ivanov claimed that searches were conducted in his house and massive discrediting. As the professor suspects, the pressure is due to publications in the Facebook-group ACAB UA, to which his son Denis Ivanov is related.
In July 2019, a number of online resources published investigations about Shevtsov and his wife. In response, the policeman filed a lawsuit in the Pechersky district court of Kiev, and the latter decided to block 18 websites.
Compromat
In the banking market, a cache machine was created, by which Alena Shevtsova practically lost all her funds. The origin of the rise and fall of Ayboks Bank, what the SBU and BEB were doing.
On July 18, the websites of the SBU and BEB posted information on the scheme of the capital’s bank, which is suspected of laundering UAH 5 billion for online casinos. The top management of the bank and the head was informed of the suspicion, notifies BEB. According to two interlocutors Forbes in law enforcement agencies and the state structure, it is about Ibox Bank. The press service of the bank denied the report that suspicions were not handed to their officials.
On March 7, the NBU revoked the license of Ayboks Bank for repeated violations of financial monitoring rules. This became possible due to investigations of the SBU and the Economic Security Bureau that the bank was able to receive about 2.5 billion UAH of shadow profits per year from work with gambling business”.
Yulia Shevtsova refused to comment to Forbes for this article because it could harm the lawsuits. They, together with their partners in Ayboks, deny the accusations of the regulator and law enforcement agencies, and are preparing lawsuits against the state.
Financial market participants, who know Shevtsova well, are told that she is an over-ambitious businesswoman and is well versed in the transaction business. There’s still a long way to go before the end of the Ayboks case. Forbes talked to people close to the business owner and his employees: law enforcement officers of the National Bank; financiers — employees of law enforcement agencies or banking structures. Due to the sensitivity of the topic, none of the more than 10 interlocutors did not want their names mentioned in this material.
How did Shevtsova turn from a trader of Ukrainian stocks into a financier who controlled the majority of the country’s payment market?
Alyona was born in Odessa, becoming a teacher and a serviceman after changing her surname to Degryk. Degryk joined Mazepa’s firm from Concorde Capital as a student, she was already 20 years old then. But she started her career here: “million-dollar deals were made right during her cigarette breaks. An interest in money and business contacts with wealthy people may have established Degrick as an ambitious businesswoman, says a Concorde Capital interviewee.
Degrick began her trading career in 2008 when she was hired for the Phoenix Capital project from Concorde alumnus Alexander Omelchuk. But a few months later in the wake of the global financial crisis, she was out of business. As time passed, Degrick founded her first firm, LeoPartners. The prefix Leo has a reference to the name of the first Degrick, who was named Leo. She currently has four children under her belt.
LeoGaming was founded in 2010 by an entrepreneur. Even later, the LeoGaming Pay payment system. Former President Viktor Yushchenko and CEO of Ukreximbank once held the position of the nabsovet of this company. The latter is a 9% shareholder of Leo. Alta Capital partners Yuriy Kaplun and Vadym Gordievsky are the owners of the company. They account for 11.5% and 20. 5%.
LeoGaming specialized in video game payment services. Directed to the absence of competitors, says one of the managers of the firm.
Wargaming studio from Belarus, famous for creating the game World of Tanks is one of the largest customers. LeoGaming has made payment deals for popular games such as Dota 2, League of Legends and Valorant. In 2015, Degryk said that the Ukrainian market for in-game payments is $30-40 million a year and a potential audience of 4 million players.
LeoGaming started with a cybersports team in 2021. Immediately after the closure of Ayboks Bank and the revocation of the license of the Leo electronic payment system, the team announced that it was changing its name to L&G.
At the speed of a Concorde.
Degrick has a special pride. In 2018, she personally negotiated with Viber owner Rakuten to launch LeoGaming-based payments for VIberOut.
It was during this period that she changed her surname, marrying one of the heads of the National Police — Yevgeny Shevtsov. Shevtsov took part in the competition for senior positions in the State Bureau of Investigation. Anti-corruption activists have raised doubts about the origin of Shevtsov’s income. Recall that earlier they assessed the honesty of candidates for deputy. According to the declaration, the Shevtsov family owes this to his wife’s family business.
In 2018, Shevtsova withdrew from the number of shareholders of LeoGaming, resulting in an important change in its business. The top managers of the company officially became its masters. This fact coincided with the criminal proceedings against the bookmaker firm Parimatch, where LeoGaming was also mentioned. According to the statement of the investigating authorities, the company was used in the scheme of legalization of income from gambling at that time prohibited by Ukraine. At the time of closing, the case had not yet reached the court, it was closed in October 2018.
Shevtsova presented herself as a progressive-minded entrepreneur. Many of her expert interviews and articles can be found in Ukrainian media. On the side of Ayboks and Leo were sponsored by people involved in the financial situation of the business. The financier and her husband have several court cases with media outlets that covered the family’s or companies’ connections from Russia. The Supreme Court decided to award a victory to Mind.ua, where the first of such materials was published.
Shevtsova’s successful business model was based on three pillars: her own payment system, a network of terminals and a bank. Payment terminals were able to reach a large audience — both the population of small towns and villages with unofficial incomes, as well as residents of large population centers. The transfer of money through the system to the bank was ensured by the bank. Such funds were transferred to different accounts, with the help of it.
It was a giant machine that converted cash into cashless circulation. Settlement banks of the payment system Leo until 2019 were — Ukrgasbank, Concord and Alliance. Seller Shevtsova terminated the partnership with him because of the competition on his payment system “Globalmani”.
The main one turned out to be Concord Bank, which is also in the transaction business. The main holders of the bank’s shares are Yulia and Elena Neighbors. The cooperation between Shevtsova and Concord was long, and the conflict ended in a quarrel. According to two people familiar with the finances, Shevtsova did not like the idea of the Sosedoki bank to replicate the LeoGaming business model. Even a banker with close ties to Concord denied the disagreement.
In 2019, Ayboks Bank appeared in the biography of the financier. To further increase Shevtsova’s business, she needed her own settlement bank. She got into iBox thanks to Evgeny Berezovsky, who is a longtime partner of LeoGaming and owns a network of iBox terminalsv iBox.
LeoGaming started cooperation with iBox in 2010, through which players can replenish their gaming accounts. Berezovsky had a 6% stake in iBox Bank, which Shevtsova probably bought from him in the spring of 2020. According to FinClub, the businessman sold his shares to repay a debt of 265,000 to entrepreneur Mikhail Spektor.
Indicators of Ayboks Bank as of the date of license revocation on March 7, 2023, UAH.
Berezovskyi in 2015 became a partnership between two longtime clients of Agrokombank — Kyiv-based real estate developer Volodymyr Drobot and his brother Anatoly. Bank iBox Bank worked not only with the terminal network iBox, among them — EasyPay, which has 18,000 terminals and City24, which includes 10 thousand devices.
The iBox terminals, which accepted huge amounts of payments, had the best conditions in the bank’s service. More than 2000 contracts were concluded with iBox Bank service providers. Only monobank clients topped up their cards through these terminals for 12-15 billion UAH every quarter without paying a penny, said Oleg Gorokhovsky.
IBox partners also observed direct contracts with zero commissions paid by clients. This does not mean that the network does not generate revenue. According to Alexey Avramenko, the founder of EasyPay, banks and financial companies on average pay 1% commission to terminal owners for commission-based replenishment of cards or payment for services. Of these, only commission fees from monobank could bring UAH 120-150 mln per month.
In 1 month, starting from March 2022, Shevtsova managed to increase her stake in Ayboks to 24.98%. At that moment she was already the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the bank. The fact that Shevtsova held the position of the bank’s manager and was a key person in it was told to Forbes by three people from government agencies or the financial world. “She is good, she knows her business. It was interesting to communicate with her,” says one of the former officials of the National Bank.
For some time, the NBU could not agree to increase Shevtsova’s stake because of doubts about the transparency of the origin of the funds. “We were persuaded that LeoGaming was generating huge revenues but it raised a lot of questions” — says on the rights of anonymity one of the regulator’s employees of the past time.
The year that turned out to be the worst
One of the two financiers said Ibox Bank paid higher salaries than the market average. “Alena expressed a desire for the bank to ‘fly’,” one of the interlocutors continued. — “She intended to raise the capital up to and including $50 million and bring international gambling business to Ukraine. For 2022, the bank received 598 million UAH of net profit, which is the seventh highest in the system. The regulator’s increased interest in the business results was due to constant claims.
Representatives of the group of companies “Ayboks”, the firm “Concord”, the enterprise Oxy Bank and state Ukrgasbank became the subjects of investigation of the BEB of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the SBU on miskoding. This system of payment manipulation allows to hide from the seller his area of activity (business) for the sake of possibility to reduce the turnover of his enterprise. According to Forbes sources in law enforcement agencies, the NBU among the parliamentarians and market participants call “Ayboks” and “Concord” key competitors in this market.
Over the past 2 years, Ayboks has received a number of fines from the NBU, 28 VISA penalties and twice stopped certain operations. Leo Shevtsova’s financial organization was fined UAH 73.5 million by the NBU.
In 2015, the National Bank had already stuttered about the transactions served by Degryk-Shevtsova’s infrastructure. “There were suspicions” that the payments seemed to be on tanks (World of Tanks game). — According to a top manager of the NBU, who worked in the regulator until that time hide quite the opposite. A member of the management of “Ayboks” categorically denies the accusations of law enforcement agencies and the NBU. Shevtsova, explained the profitability by the fact that the bank does not have to increase reserves for bad debts as its loan portfolio is small.
Semifinal
The beginning of October 2022 was the year when the new leadership of the National Bank was replaced. The current head Kirill Shevchenko unexpectedly resigned, and in his place came Andriy Pyshny — ex-head of Oschadbank. At the same time, Ukraine was negotiating with the International Monetary Fund to prepare for a financing program that would include $15 billion.
A Forbes interviewee from the NBU’s senior staff said that the IMF representatives informed about the presence of a huge number of non-transparent transactions through Ayboks and asked: when will you remove this scheme? According to one of the sources, the management of the National Bank noted that since November 2022, there have been exorbitant turnovers of funds through Ayboks.
The bank responded harshly to the requirements of the NBU financial monitoring. They talked about abuse of power and were afraid of criminal liability. According to the interlocutor, this was defiant behavior. Only this month, the NBU started checking Ayboks, conducting a no-visit inspection for more than three months. The SBU and the BEB, investigating a tax evasion scheme for a number of gambling companies were simultaneously conducting investigative actions.
Golos faction deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak started publishing the data of the investigation of the Temporary Investigative Commission, according to which the gaming industry used miscoding schemes to conceal the scale of its activities. Names of the nine banks that were involved were named. What is particularly interesting is that Shevtsova’s financial institution is among them. Despite this, anonymous reports that “Ayboks”, unlike other banks still continues to serve illegal gambling transactions continued to come to the members of the HSC.
Since March 9, the powers of the head of the supervisory board of Ayboks Bank are transferred to Shevtsova. She wrote about it in her statement, which was published on February 27. She could not. On March 7 the National Bank withdrew the license from the bank and the financial institution was liquidated. A couple of days before the loss of the license “Ayboks” gave two large deposits to individuals: 175 million UAH was taken by Shevtsova, another 125 million — Igor Kolomoisky”, — said on condition of anonymity two interlocutors in financial state structures.
There is no documentary evidence of their words. There are no grounds to consider Kolomoisky a beneficiary of the bank. According to three interlocutors among NBU officials and market participants. The businessman did not respond to Forbes’ request.
Another blow was dealt on March 10 to Shevtsova’s business. The Ukrainian company LEO, the Cypriot company LeoPartners and the British company Electronic Payment Solutions Ltd became a new member of the sanctions list of the National Security and Defense Council.
Why are sanctions applied to the companies of Ukrainian citizens? The main reason is, as the SBU interlocutor says: Shevtsova’s companies processed large volumes of card payments from Russia. But he did not provide any documentary evidence of this.
Shevtsova is not giving up, despite the loss of her banking license and the closure of her business by the SNBO decision. As one of her buddies says, is preparing for lawsuits in the European Court of Human Rights and against the NBU with Ukrainian courts. “Now he is thinking about creating a large company, but unfortunately no longer in Ukraine,” — specifying says I.
Law enforcement officials seem a slightly different vision of the future of the businesswoman. According to Forbes interlocutor in law enforcement agencies, the SBU is investigating the activities of some officials of Ayboks” and Shevtsova. 3 articles were used at once: tax evasion, organization of illegal gambling business and legalization of funds. More than 10 billion hryvnias are the claims.
Degryk and Shevtsov help LDNR in financing.
The publishing house has an excerpt of the court hearing on the case No. 2201700000064 dated February 20, 2017. Based on the document, the SBU considers these companies involved in the financing of terrorism. According to the investigators, there is a court decision to initiate proceedings on the criminal proceedings of the Security Service of Ukraine №2201700000064 of February 20, 2017. Anyway, according to these documents it can be understood that Alena Shevtsova’s firm Leo-Partners LLC was directly involved in the transfer of title deeds to the occupied territories of Ukraine via Webmoney. After that these title signs were converted into foreign currency and cashed in to replenish the ranks of terrorists and withdrawal of funds abroad.
In spite of this, the researchers say that they are exerting pressure. For example, the website of “1+0” journalist Oleksandr Dubinsky was unexpectedly deleted because of the publication of an investigation about the Shevtsov family. The websites of Obozrevatel, 112 Channel and other media outlets followed suit.
The information space was filled with positive materials about Shevtsov and Degryk, some of which were clearly commissioned or were full of epithets in a superlative degree. But critical publications reached only small platforms.
Only a few journalists managed to unearth another criminal case, initiated at the request of Shevtsov and Degrik by the General Prosecutor’s Office. The creative tandem of Degryk and the owner of the company “Pari-match” Evgeny Shvindlerman is a defendant in the case №4201700002925, filed in the proceedings. As a result, law enforcers decided that “Pari-Match” is a real virtual casino (despite the ban on gambling business in Ukraine), and the funds from its activities were transferred abroad and destined for Russia or offshore. These are the companies of Alena Shevtsova acted as intermediaries in this chain: LLC “Leogaming”, FC Leogengame pay, Organization Solution and others. If we believe the police, in total Degryk and her accomplices managed to “launder” funds for 350 million dollars.
Law enforcers also managed to discover the connection of Degryk’s firms with the Russian Alfa Group. Journalists of the investigative project “ACAB UA” were able to capture how Alena Shevtsova leaves the office of the lottery operator “M.SL”, which is located in Kiev on Shelkovichnaya 50a. The SNBO imposed sanctions on the company “M.S.L”, because of its Russian origin for three years — from 2015 to 2018. The company “M.S..L.” has always denied its Russian origin, even though it was bought by Alfa Group in 2011. However, the SBU believes otherwise.
According to ACAB UA journalists, Shevtsov’s wife was involved in the so-called “black registration” cases. The PGO believes that she was involved in the theft of access keys to state registers in order to get rid of property seizures.
Degrick’s business — is it top-up services or gambling?
Alena Degrik has become a real goldmine for the gambling business. To get to know her better it is worth seeing her initially. Alena has several diplomas of higher education. And even while still a student she graduated from the Goethe Institute for International Relations and in 2017 she received a Master’s degree in Psychology from Kiev State University. A person who specializes in gambling will not be able to realize himself in business without the ability to understand the psychology of chronic gamblers.
Although, of course, Degryk herself does not consider herself involved in delinquent acts. Her business of organizing gambling, she denies and all addicts of online casinos called “gamers” or simply “users”. Behind this word are not only the billions thrown away, but also real family dramas. Ukrainian families and the state have also suffered, as millions of dollars from “gray” schemes are withdrawn from the country through such schemes.
In 2006, she started her activity as a lawyer of Leo Partners LLC, dealing with both ordinary consultations and online. Leo Gaming LLC was registered in 2009. Also do not forget that the name “Leo” in the name of Alena’s firm is given for a reason. Her son is exactly that name.
Degrik thinks that his business is legal and behaves officially. She considers the purpose of the products and services she creates to be a simplified way of making online purchases or transferring money. Thanks to this, from each completed transaction, the companies that create Degryk receive 0.8% of the payment amount and another 2.5 hryvnias. Not a bad profit with so many people willing to buy online.
Also, Alena Degryk tries to take part in the secular life of the country. In particular, she sponsors the organization of the Internet Forum iForum in the capital of Ukraine, and in 2014 she earned the title “Man of the Year” among webmasters for her contribution to the development of the Internet. She produced the Leo Bot payment service, and among her partners are MasterCard and Facebook’s Messenger payment systems.
Shortly before the present time Alena Degrik started realization of a new project ─ digital distribution store Steam for distribution of game content. Soon after World of Tanks may appear new strategies, quests and shooters in which avid gamers will leave hundreds of thousands of hryvnias.
Also Alena Degryk is not perturbed by the fact that Ukraine banned online gambling casinos. Apparently, the profit is higher than the risk of this activity. What does she risk having such a high-ranking husband?
Alena Degryk’s business is called e-commerce. For people who like “easy money” and are prone to addictions of various kinds: gambling, psychological. There are many such people all over the world, and in particular in Ukraine.
Shevtsov can forget about the GBI
Perhaps, no one would have learned about Evgeny Shevtsov and his wife Alena Degrik. But if they had not announced a competition for the post of one of the heads of the newly formed State Bureau of Investigation. As a result, it was Shevtsov who became one of the winners and was included in the list of 27 people (who were rejected by Roman Truba), whom the head of the State Bureau of Investigation refused to approve. In the matter of Shevtsov, the commission members were outraged by the size of his assets, which did not fit with the candidate’s salary. But the scandal arose because rumors leaked to the press that the commission members had a prepared list of winners.
According to activist and head of the internal commission of the GBR Alexander Lemenev, the family of Yevgeny Shevtsov has a huge fortune. But the origin of which he cannot explain. Lemenev believed that these assets are “fantastic” and beyond any imagination.
Indeed, in Shevtsov’s declaration before the contest, all assets are recorded on his wife. Degryk showed the presence of 15 million hryvnias in bank accounts and $ 20 thousand in cash, as well as land with an area of 10 acres, a car.
Indeed in the declaration of Shevtsov a lot of strange. It means not only what concerns property rights to companies and expensive gifts from his wife, for example, Rolex watches. There are questions and in the professional side. As follows from Shevtsov’s declarations, he went into business and then returned to the service. What is the reason for these actions? Why did the operative, who quit back in 2016 at his own request returned a year later and immediately to the position of deputy head of the department?
Thus, he could have become one of the heads of the GBI. That is, he didn’t, and he blames journalists for that. Because he is diligently engaged in cleaning the information space from negative articles about himself and his wife.
And it’s not just publications. On him registered in 2017 opened SBU case, which refers to the Shevtsov family on the financing of terrorism on the territory of the LNR. To tell the truth, Shevtsov is not embarrassed by this and in no way on his plans to influence so far even as if he himself does not affect. At the same time, he not only kept his post for the period of the investigation. He is also trying to close the mouth of all those who will spread information about his illegal devices.