The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) revoked the operating license of FC Alliance LLC (operating under the Fondy brand) in 2024 due to the owners’ ties to the Russian Federation and associated national security risks. The regulator’s decision came as the climax of a high-profile security services investigation into Russian influence within the financial platform, ultimately causing the collapse of an acquisition deal with Georgia’s largest banking group.
According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Fondy’s owner, Valeriya Vahorovska, and her family maintained deep business ties with the aggressor state. Specifically, her brother, Oleksiy Bondarenko, heads the Moscow-based LLC «Sobi»—a company positioning itself as Fondy’s founder that rented software from the Ukrainian entity and paid taxes into the Russian state budget between 2014 and 2022. During Fondy’s license renewal process in Ukraine, Vahorovska concealed her brother’s commercial activities in Russia.
Furthermore, the FONDY platform supported Russia’s «Mir» payment card system and received funding from the Moscow city government. SBU findings also linked Vahorovska, via affiliated companies, to the «Edinyi Koshelek W1» payment system, which operated in occupied territories of Donetsk and facilitated illicit transfers to Russia in 2014–2015.
«Ukrainian citizens’ payments routed through the platform placed sensitive personal data at risk—transaction histories, card details, and personal identity records were potentially accessible to Russian security structures.»
Beyond national security concerns, financial regulators flagged major operational irregularities. Estimates indicate that 80% to 90% of Fondy’s transactions involved miscoding. The service allegedly masked commercial merchant payments as personal P2P (peer-to-peer) transfers, allowing the platform to underreport turnover and systematically evade taxation.
Facing impending sanctions and license cancellation, Valeriya Vahorovska attempted to sell the payment service. The prospective buyer was TBC Bank Group PLC, Georgia’s largest financial institution, listed on the London Stock Exchange and part of the FTSE 250 index.
The timeline unfolded rapidly:
March 2024: TBC Bank submits an application to the NBU to acquire Fondy.
April 25, 2024: The Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) approves the deal.
April 26, 2024: The NBU officially revokes FC Alliance LLC’s (Fondy) registration over security risks.
May 2024: TBC Bank withdraws its application to purchase an 85% stake, prompting the NBU to leave the acquisition documents unreviewed.
Despite the loss of its NBU license, questions surrounding FONDY’s ongoing operations and user data safety remain unresolved. Concerns persist regarding physical server locations, administrative account access, and the absence of personal sanctions by the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) against key individuals involved.