Ukrainian conflict over the shady online casino operations involving businesswoman Alena Degrik-Shevtsova and the authority of Yura Enakievsky's group

The online gambling market is currently quite murky. If you frequently use the Internet, you may have noticed numerous ads for various online casinos constantly appearing everywhere.

To attract as many gamblers as possible, casino marketers offer large bonuses and money credits, which can be tempting especially for those with lower incomes. Initially, the system seems to allow for winning and becoming more involved in the virtual casino world. However, ultimately, like in traditional gambling, the house always wins. This industry has both transparent and questionable aspects, with casino owners earning substantial amounts daily. In the Kompromat1 portal report, we will discuss a serious conflict that has arisen due to the redistribution of murky online casino operations in Ukraine. We'll delve into how key figures in the Ukrainian gray market of gambling services, Alyona Degrik-Shervits and her husband, are attempting to join forces with Yura Enakievsky's group – as detailed in our report.

Growing sector

Casinos in various forms have been around for over a century. With the rise of electronic technologies, the industry had to evolve to meet modern demands, leading to the transition of many services to the online realm.

Due to the semi-legal nature of online casino activities, it was necessary to find ways to withdraw funds from their dubious business. Illegal brick-and-mortar casinos exclusively worked with cash, while online casinos operate using cashless payments.

Our story begins in 2009, when a then-unknown girl named Alyona Degrik-Shevtsova registered the company LeoPartners in Ukraine. Initially, Degrik-Shevtsova's business offered financial and legal advisory services to corporate clients. However, the young businesswoman later realized that cashing out through murky schemes was a more lucrative endeavor.

Alena Degrik-Shevtsova

As a result, Degrik-Shevtsova's business expanded and shifted its primary focus. Since 2010, work on LeoGaming began under the umbrella of LeoPartners. Degrik-Shevtsova's startup was created to facilitate financial transactions bypassing banks, providing an ideal payment system for semi-legal and completely illegal services. Despite this, such activities are not prohibited by financial legislation.

In 2017, Degrik-Shevtsova established LEO Financial Company LLC. According to Ukrainian registers, the enterprise's main activity is classified as 'other types of monetary intermediation'. Degrik-Shevtsova's business partners include the controversial former official Vadim Gordievsky and the head of the Ukrainian Chess Federation, Viktor Kapustin. The company quickly established itself as a major player in the payment services market and obtained 11 relevant licenses from the National Bank of Ukraine.

Vadim Gordievsky

Viktor Kapustin

The companies of Degrik-Shevtsova have no issues with tax reporting, and actually, they are making an effort to follow all the conditions of the law. This strict attention to legal details suggests that something is seriously wrong in Degrik-Shevtsova’s business. Therefore, we need to investigate this story further.

Ukrainian investigators have repeatedly looked into the activities of Degrik-Shevtsova’s companies. The Leo group of companies, which includes an advisory department, a financial operations department, legal and other support, acquired its own bank in 2019. They chose ibox bank for a reason. It has been around in the Ukrainian banking market since 1993. However, at that time, it was given a very strange name – “Authority”. Over the last 30 years, the bank changed hands, changed its name and investors. It was not well-known in the financial services market, and it did not have money from individuals. Some interested people bought the bank to facilitate their “projects”, in other words, money laundering. In 2016, a questionable financial institution was acquired by a person with an equally unclear background – businessman Yevgeny Berezovsky. Berezovsky needed the bank to service his own iBox payment machines.

Evgeny Berezovsky

By 2020, Berezovsky was deeply in debt. His share in the bank had to be sold in order to at least partially pay off the debt. Degrik-Shevtsova, seeing this as a great opportunity for further illicit activities, did not miss the chance to acquire the financial institution, essentially for very little money.

A new chapter began at Ibox Bank – money poured into it without any financial monitoring or establishing the origin of funds. Due to such activities, the National Bank of Ukraine fined the financial institution 10 million hryvnias in 2021. Another company of Degrik-Shevtsova, OOO FC LEOGAMING PAY, also faced sanctions. The company was accused of violating Ukraine’s law “On Preventing and Combating the Legalization of Proceeds from Crime” and was fined UAH 549,000.

Information about NBU fines to the bank and the Degrik-Shevtsova company

But any financial penalties in this case did not help and will not help. 10 million hryvnias is about 250 thousand dollars today. Businesswoman companies earn more every day. And if they abide by all the requirements of the regulator, 99% of the profit will disappear.

Competition and conflict

It is impossible to calculate the turnover and revenue of an online casino at all. But everyone knows that a lot of money is involved in this business – we are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars.

It is clear that in the market for serving such companies, Degrik-Shevtsova could not be the only one. Where there is money (especially large amounts), there will always be competition.

There is another major player in the shadow financial services market – GLOBALMONEY. This company competes seriously with the structures of “Leo” Degrik-Shevtsova. The competition is as clear as the business itself. Opponents repeatedly initiate various information attacks against each other. Currently, they are attempting to manipulate the topic of Russia. They claim that companies have main beneficiaries “in the territory of the enemy”. This escalated to the point that Degrik-Shevtsova declared complete war on her rivals. Employees of the Ibox Bank controlled by her sent messages to GLOBALMONEY clients with information accusing the company of serious wrongdoing. The case gained a lot of attention, and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine responded to the activities of the financial institution, fining Degrik-Shevtsova’s bank for 68,000 hryvnias. But this fine, along with other financial expenses, does not end the conflict. On the contrary, over time, financial institutions are trying to undermine each other more and more. Once again, it's important to note that this involves tens of billions of dollars from the shadow economy. Nobody wants to give up even a penny.

But Degrik-Shevtsova chose a difficult organization as her enemy. GLOBALMONEY controls a huge number of payments made by players of online casinos and bookmakers. In order to process these financial transactions, you need a bank, and in this matter, GLOBALMONEY cooperates with a very difficult player – another shadow bank, Alliance. “Alliance” was created in the early 1990s in Donetsk to launder the funds of the local political elite. The real owner was (and as many say) is now a well-known criminal entrepreneur Yuri Ivanyushchenko (Yura Enakievsky), who has been living in Monaco for the last 10 years.

Yuri Ivanyushchenko

Although Yura Enakievsky lost much of his influence after Yanukovych’s flight from the country, many of his business partners were able to find themselves under the new authorities. Therefore, through old friends, Ivanyushchenko can still resolve issues in Ukraine.

Husband closes everything

The obvious violent illegal activities of Degrik-Shevtsova could not but interest law enforcement agencies. It is known that at least 5 criminal proceedings have been initiated against the businesswoman, which relate to tax evasion, bribery, fraud, forgery and others. It seems that this is not a biography of an entrepreneur, but a hardened criminal.

As a girl, the businesswoman had the surname Degrik, but then she got married and became Shevtsova. Her husband was a man in a police uniform Evgeny Shevtsov.

Evgeny and Alena Shevtsov

According to the YouControl service, Evgeny Shevtsov holds a serious position in the Ukrainian police, being the deputy head of the department – head of the department of the National Police of Ukraine. In addition to her husband, Shevtsova’s sister and mother were exposed in the criminal schemes.

Data from the registry about the family of Degrik-Shevtsova

It turns out that the husband in uniform is trying by any means to close the criminal stories of his wife.

But it is unlikely that it will be possible to get out of the water dry with such a train. Nevertheless, there are many criminal cases, and it becomes more and more difficult to keep track of everything over time.