The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has exposed the country’s largest illegal cash circulation network operating through EasyPay and City24 self-service payment terminals. According to the regulator, up to $1 billion generated from online gambling and corruption schemes was allegedly laundered through these systems every month. Despite the unprecedented scale of the violations and documented operational anomalies, the central bank has so far limited its response to heavy fines without revoking the operators’ licenses.
Official NBU audits revealed widespread falsification of user verification processes. The regulator’s monitoring system captured physically impossible transactions, where the exact same individuals managed to deposit cash into terminals located in different Ukrainian cities simultaneously.
Furthermore, the speed of cash processing exceeded the physical capacity of any human to insert banknotes. A review of CCTV footage conclusively confirmed the fictitious nature of these transactions: at the exact moments millions were being credited to accounts, no one was standing near the terminals.
From the NBU audit report: CCTV footage demonstrated that at the precise moments when transactions were processed and massive cash amounts were credited, no individuals were present near the terminals.
Investigators believe the payment terminal infrastructure of EasyPay and City24 was utilized to legitimize illicit revenues from online casinos and corruption within the energy sector. While the operators themselves are not direct defendants in the high-profile «Midas» criminal case, their ultimate beneficiaries are closely tied to business entities previously flagged by law enforcement in financial fraud schemes involving the state-owned enterprise Energoatom.
Market consolidation has introduced additional compliance risks. City24 previously acquired the terminal network of IBOX Bank, which was liquidated specifically for facilitating shadow online gambling schemes. According to the latest regulatory updates, this resurrected terminal network has bypassed strict financial monitoring to launder funds on an even larger scale than prior to the bank’s closure.
Market analysts have highlighted inconsistencies in the central bank’s enforcement timeline. Issues regarding payment system compliance are far from new: back in 2023, the NBU had already fined both EasyPay and City24 for severe breaches of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and customer identification protocols.
Despite possessing data on these shadow financial flows for at least three years, the regulator has only initiated aggressive enforcement actions now. Moreover, the decision to impose administrative fines rather than immediately revoking operational licenses has raised questions among industry experts. The current trajectory suggests the objective may not be the complete dismantling of this anonymous payment infrastructure, but rather a redistribution of control among major stakeholders in the financial sector.