Financing DPR militants through offshore shells “Pari-Match” and nepotism in the NBU: Ibox Bank owner Alyona Degrik-Shevtsova futilely hides compromising evidence online through content takedowns

Alyona Shevtsova’s (Degrik) company, notorious for scandals and regarded by journalists as a symbol of Ukrainian corruption in 2018, which is involved in a case opened by the GPU, is being re-registered under front persons.

Back in 2017, the country’s largest online casino operating under the “Pari-Match” brand came under suspicion from law enforcement. With support from the Security Service of Ukraine, the General Prosecutor’s Office launched a criminal case in October 2017 under number 42017000000002925.

The case affected dozens of individuals and legal entities who were in any way connected to “Pari-Match,” directly participating in the casino’s operations, handling accounts, assisting with bets, and cashing out funds. Investigators from the GPU summarized: “The total volume of revenues legalized by the perpetrators through criminal means amounts to approximately 350 million USD per year.”

Alyona Shevtsova (Degrik) is the founder and CEO of FC “Leogaming Pay,” who is also mentioned in the criminal case materials. In private circles, she is known as the former common-law wife of Roman Nasirov, with whom she previously worked at Concord Capital. The company “Leogaming” was actually named after their son Lev. Currently, Alyona  Shevtsova is married to Evgeny Shevtsov.

Evgeny Shevtsov is the head of one of the departments of the National Police. Previously, in 2016–2017, he served as commercial director of the enterprise “Financial Company” Leogaming Pay.

In early August, Degrik left the list of founders of LLC “Leogaming.” The company immediately changed its name to “iGame,” moved its registration address from Kyiv to Kharkiv, and is now owned through the Bila Tserkva-based LLC “Trans Trade Group” by two individuals with signs of being fictitious: Oleksandr Komlyk from Andriyashivka, Sumy region, and Volodymyr Tymoshchuk from Velyka Snytinka, Kyiv region.

The new director of the renamed “Leogaming” is Petr Valeryevich Zhalnin. A person with this name and taxpayer ID appears in multiple companies, including “AMI-Spectekhnika” and “New Technologies Plus.”

More notably, this individual is listed in the “Myrotvorets” database as a DPR militant. On Petr Zhalnin’s VKontakte page, associated with the former site “New Technologies Plus,” he boasts a DPR “passport” and posts photos in uniform with a rifle, as well as a 2015 photo from Red Square in Moscow.

How the company leadership was registered under a DPR militant, who is wanted and has not left territory uncontrolled by Ukrainian authorities, remains an intriguing question.

In court materials related to Alyona Shevtsova’s companies, the SBU noted that they finance militants in eastern Ukraine.

However, as reported by the media, Deputy Minister of Justice Natalia Bernatskaya serves on the external competition commission of the State Bureau of Investigation and voted twice to appoint Evgeny Shevtsov to the SBI. With such allies in the Ministry of Justice, re-registering companies under a DPR militant is reportedly not an obstacle. It is also worth noting that Alyona Shevtsova (Degrik) is a godmother and close friend of Tatyana Smoliy, the daughter of former National Bank head Yakov Smoliy.