The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kharkiv continues a multi-year trial involving an organized group of six individuals accused of running large-scale illegal cryptocurrency and currency exchange operations. According to investigators, the scheme led to tax evasion exceeding 71 million UAH, with funds routed through sanctioned Russian payment systems.
The investigation into this financial network covers several criminal proceedings, the primary one having been opened by Kyiv’s Darnytsia Police Department in October 2020 for large-scale tax evasion and money laundering. Parallel case files from December 2022 involve the search for a group member who fled abroad.
According to pre-trial records, the scheme dates back to 2017 when two organizers assembled a team to launch online crypto and cash exchange platforms, including master-change. Additional accomplices joined the operation in subsequent years.
The defendants currently on trial include members of a single family and their associates:
Oleksandr Oleksiiovych Kalmykov
Serhii Oleksandrovych Kalmykov
Artem Oleksandrovych Kalmykov
Tetiana Volodymyrivna Morozova
Valeriia Valeriivna Bezpiata
Olena Oleksandrivna Babenko
The operation relied on strict anonymity: clients transferred hryvnias, foreign currencies, or crypto to the defendants’ personal bank cards. The funds were then moved without Client Identification (KYC), financial services licenses, or payment of Personal Income Tax and military levies. Economic expert evaluations calculated a 71.05 million UAH shortfall in state budget revenues between 2017 and 2020.
A significant portion of the case file centers on connections to the Russian financial sector. Investigators found that the group utilized platforms like bit-exchanger.ru and actively transacted with Yandex.Money, WebMoney, QIWI, and Wallet One—payment systems sanctioned by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) and monitored by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
Cash transfers were conducted through an underground network of physical exchange points located in major Ukrainian cities, abroad, and across occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. To disguise their operations, several offices operated under the corporate details of third-party companies holding official NBU licenses.
Law enforcement identified the primary coordinators as natives of Sakhnovshchyna (Kharkiv region) and Sloviansk, with the Kyiv office managed by a relative of one of the founders.
Prosecutors state that illicit profits were laundered into real estate, land plots, and precious metals. During searches across Kyiv and Kharkiv offices, private residences, and safety deposit boxes, law enforcement seized substantial assets:
Kharkiv (UkrSibbank deposit boxes): Two safes yielded €646,500 and $300,000.
Kharkiv Residences: One location contained over $51,000, hundreds of Euros, Russian rubles, three 1 kg bars of 999 fine investment silver, and 1,151 silver bars weighing 250 grams each. Another residence contained $55,400, €1,500, 60,000 UAH, British pounds, a hardware crypto wallet, storage drives, and boxed Apple and Asus hardware.
Kharkiv Ground-Floor Exchanger: A single office cash box held currencies from dozens of nations: $78,500, €3,400, 445,000 UAH, along with Czech korunas, Hungarian forints, Chinese yuan, Thai baht, Israeli shekels, Japanese yen, Swiss francs, and Kazakhstani tenge.
Kyiv Facilities: At the bit-exchanger customer service branch and rented apartments, officers seized over $380,000, €19,000, and 1,062 silver bars. An additional 1,076 silver bars and €20,000 were recovered from safe deposit boxes at the former Sberbank premises.
In total, authorities confiscated thousands of silver bars weighing hundreds of kilograms.
Although the indictment was submitted to the court in June 2023, the trial has experienced significant delays. While written evidence has been reviewed, witness testimony has stalled: out of 19 prosecution witnesses listed in court records, only two had been questioned as of early 2026.
During a session on July 24, 2026, defense attorneys requested the court to mandate the prosecutor to ensure witness attendance, citing a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the right to a trial within a reasonable time. The prosecutor responded that witness summonses were proceeding according to schedule.
The court partially granted the defense motion, setting formal hearing dates for September and October 2026, while assigning responsibility for witness appearances to the Darnytsia District Prosecutor’s Office of Kyiv. A court order for forced attendance via police transport was issued for one witness who repeatedly failed to appear.