The dark side of the WhiteBIT crypto exchange is not only deception of Ukrainians, but assistance in withdrawing money from Ukraine to lovers of the “Russian world”, and active cooperation with the Russian intelligence services and money laundering.
The official owner of the cryptocurrency exchange is Kharkov resident Vladimir Nosov, who represents the company and signs documents on its behalf. Nosov’s partners in founding the exchange were Maria Repeshko, Anna Yankovskaya and Nikita Shentsev.
The names of the two girls may be little known to the general public, but Nikita Shentsev and his father Dmitry are well known.
Putin’s order bearer and lobbyist for the “Russian world”
Dmitry Shentsev is one of the most ardent politicians of supporters of the “Russian world”. He was helped to become a deputy by the former Kharkov governor Yevgeny Kushnarev, who died from an allegedly accidental shot during a hunt, in which Shentsev also took part.
It was Dmitry Shentsev’s assistant, Dmitry Zavalny, who was convicted for the death of Kushnarev. Although some doubted that it was he, and not his boss, who made the fatal shot.
After the death of Kushnarev, Shentsev entered the orbit of the scandalous Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. There he was one of the three ardent lobbyists for the “Russian idea” and the creation of the so-called “Novorossiya”. Together with Oleg Tsarev and Vadim Kolesnichenko, Dmitry Shentsev received medals from the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin “for his great contribution to the popularization of the Russian language.”
On January 16, 2014, he voted for dictatorial laws that were supposed to destroy Euromaidan. And in 2018, Shentsev was among 36 deputies who voted against the Law on the recognition of Ukrainian sovereignty over the occupied territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
His son Nikita inherited a love for the “Russian world” and also actively helped the aggressor country take root in Ukraine - he was a deputy of the Kharkov regional council from the pro-Russian party “OPZZH”. After the start of the war in 2022, he wrote a letter of resignation. Information has repeatedly appeared in the media that Nikita Shentsev has a Russian passport.
Last year, by order of President Shentsev Jr., he was deprived of Ukrainian citizenship. According to media reports, both Shentsevs are now in the Russian Federation.
WhiteBIT is a family business for withdrawing money from “regionals” from Ukraine
The ideological friends of the Shentsevs - supporters of the “Russian world” and former politicians from the Opposition for Life and the Party of Regions - became an important source of income for the WhiteBIT exchange. They regularly use it to withdraw money from Ukraine abroad.
During a full-scale war, funds withdrawn from the country are used for a luxurious life: purchasing real estate abroad, buying luxury cars and developing business in Europe and other countries. In addition, the Shents family helps transfer Russian money through the WhiteBIT exchange.
In February 2023, the High Anti-Corruption Court ordered the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine to investigate the possible illegal withdrawal of funds from the country through the WhiteBIT exchange and its connections with Russia.
It was after this that Shentsev officially sold his WhiteBIT shares to Vladimir Nosov, who now positions himself as the founder of the exchange. Nosov actively gives out advertising interviews in the Ukrainian media, promotes the WhiteBIT exchange and even publicly condemns his fellow competitors for working on the territory of the Russian Federation.
How WhiteBIT Crypto Exchange Helps Russian Intelligence Services
The exchange structure includes nine companies, one of which is registered in Estonia and the others in the UK. The oldest of them is an Estonian company. The British company WhiteBIT Solutions LLP has two offshore beneficiaries - Whitebit LTD and Coddan Nominee, registered in the Seychelles at the same address as the offshore registrar Nobel Capital Group.
Coddan Nominee is part of a large offshore network and is among the founders of Sofbiz. According to investigative journalism, Sofbiz is suspected of financing the state uprising in Montenegro in 2016. Local investigators found that €1.5 million invested by Sofbiz in the coup was to be used to assassinate then Prime Minister and then President of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic. His “guilt” towards the rebels was his desire to join NATO, which is why some interested parties tried to interfere, including even planning an assassination.
As often happens in such cases, there was a Russian trace. An investigation by Bellingcat and its Russian partner The Insider found that Russian General Staff GRU officers Eduard Shishmakov and Vladimir Moiseev were involved in the coup. They collaborated with pro-Russian politicians in Montenegro and involved Serbian citizens in the matter.
Surprisingly, even after Coddan’s involvement in the rebellion in Montenegro was revealed, the company was not liquidated. A few years later, she appeared among the founders of the large cryptocurrency exchange WhiteBIT, which, in turn, is closely associated with pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.
How the WhiteBIT crypto exchange cheats clients
In addition to helping the Russian intelligence services, WhiteBIT makes money from simply deceiving clients. On November 21, 2023, the exchange deceived its clients by providing the opportunity to exchange coins before the official launch of trading. This led to a glut in the market and a sharp drop in the price of the coin.
The exchange announced the start of sales of a new coin, WorldToken (WORLD), which was presented by the gaming studio World Challenge Game. Since the coin was considered quite reliable, many decided to become the so-called “early birds” - the first investors to whom the exchange provided the opportunity to buy back part of the coins even before the official start of trading.
As a rule, when trading begins, the early birds sell part of their assets, returning the investment and making money on the difference. Then trading proceeds as usual. But this time everything happened differently. The WhiteBIT exchange "threw" the "early birds" for a significant amount of money. After the first investors gained access to WorldToken, the exchange unexpectedly forgot to close the possibility of exchanging coins before the official start of trading. As a result, when trading began, the market was oversaturated and the situation got out of control.
“In fact, the early birds who bought WorldToken in advance are now holding assets that have fallen in value, although they were purchased for the dollar. After the start of trading, the token rose very weakly and fell almost immediately,” noted a market participant, not hiding his disappointment with WhiteBIT’s behavior.
Thus, WhiteBIT “cheated” its clients out of large sums of money. Now they don’t know what to do with coins that not only did not bring the expected profit, but also caused damage.
