Monobank, one of Ukraine’s most popular neobanks (legally operating under JSC «Universal Bank»), has found itself at the center of several major investigations involving tax optimization, miscoding, and the facilitation of shadow accounts. Despite its rapid customer growth, the financial institution’s activities are increasingly drawing scrutiny from law enforcement and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), resulting in multi-million fines.
The Monobank project was launched by former top managers of PrivatBank who left the institution following its nationalization in 2016. However, key figures and co-founders of the project—Oleksandr Dubilet (former IT Director), Volodymyr Yatsenko (former Deputy Chairman of the Board), and Liudmyla Shmalchenko (former Treasury Director)—are currently wanted by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). They are suspects in a high-profile case involving the embezzlement of funds from PrivatBank.
Until March 2023, JSC «iBox Bank» served as Monobank’s exclusive partner for instant card top-ups via physical terminals. The NBU subsequently revoked iBox Bank’s license and liquidated the institution due to systematic violations in financial monitoring, specifically miscoding—disguising transaction codes to process payments for illegal online casinos.
According to investigators, the money laundering scheme operated through over 20 controlled entities and was organized by the bank’s co-owner, Ihor Khmelov (a business partner of producer Tymur Mindych). Khmelov also serves as a top executive at Fire Point, a major contractor for the Ministry of Defense. Fire Point is currently implicated in NABU’s «Midas» investigation under suspicion of inflating prices on state drone procurement contracts.
The most public backlash emerged surrounding the bank’s internal financial operations after Ukraine introduced an increased 50% corporate tax rate for the banking sector in late 2023.
To lower its tax burden, Universal Bank began aggressively transferring Monobank’s revenues to an associated entity, Fintech Band LLC, where the corporate tax rate stands at 18%. The funds were shifted under the guise of payments for IT services, marketing, and mobile app management. Estimates suggest that at least 2.5 billion UAH was channeled out of the bank in 2023 alone, allowing the company to avoid approximately 750 million UAH in taxes. Co-founder Oleh Horokhovsky and Universal Bank owner Serhiy Tihipko have yet to publicly comment on the matter.
Another severe challenge for the bank has been widespread financial fraud. Throughout 2024, PrivatBank and Monobank shut down roughly 80,000 card accounts belonging to «money mules» (individuals renting out their accounts), marking the highest volume in the Ukrainian banking system. In March 2025, the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB) officially blacklisted the neobank among 12 institutions most heavily utilized for opening mule accounts. The total annual volume of such shadow transactions nationwide is estimated at 200 billion UAH.
Due to weak compliance and oversight, the Regulator has repeatedly penalized the bank:
«In December 2023, the NBU fined Universal Bank 10.451 million UAH for financial monitoring failures. By October 2025, the penalty surged to 27.3 million UAH due to inadequate customer due diligence and failure to report suspicious transactions in a timely manner.»
These high-profile Monobank scandals highlight a tightening grip by state regulators on transparency within the banking sector. Market analysts suggest that the uncovered facts might only be the tip of the iceberg regarding ongoing investigations into the financial group’s practices.