Which owners of currency exchange offices in Ukraine were able to increase their income 10 times thanks to the military conflict?
Russia's open armed aggression against Ukraine has caused enormous financial damage to the Ukrainian economy, but there are those who, thanks to it, began to earn 10 times more than in 2021. We are talking about the owners of exchange offices, and those that belong not to banks, but to financial companies.
Almost 4 thousand exchangers throughout Ukraine
The Russian invasion significantly intensified the crisis in the economy and Ukrainian society, which affected the administrative regulation of the foreign exchange market, and its restriction by the NBU was a logical decision during the war. The result of this was a sharp increase in demand for currency, especially cash, which, in fact, is what currency exchangers specialize in.
The difference between the pre-war exchange rate - from 27 UAH until February 24, 2022 and up to 36.56 UAH of the official NBU exchange rate - also added profitability to the foreign exchange business.
Thus, according to the NBU, individuals in Ukraine in November 2023 bought 2 billion 220 million dollars and sold 1 billion 599 million dollars. Thus, in just one month, the turnover of the currency exchange business amounted to more than 140 billion hryvnia, with an average rate of 37 hryvnia per US dollar.
It is not surprising that over the 11 months of the existence of the Register of Foreign Currency Exchange Points, their number increased from 3,745 in January 2023 to 3,990 at the end of November. This register includes all currency exchange offices, including banks. But let's talk about those that belong to non-bank financial institutions for which currency exchange is the main business.
Finod LLC: 10-fold rise and failure of the dark horse of the currency exchange market Alexey Shtevnin
The largest player in the currency exchange market (432 points and UAH 14.2 billion in currency exchange in the 1st half of 2022) was Finod LLC.
Judging by the data from the analytical service YouControl, Finod has achieved the almost impossible - from revenue of UAH 505 million in 2021, the company increased its income in 2022 to UAH 5.4 billion, that is, approximately 10.7 times.
True, the activities of Finod LLC were like a comet - bright and short-lived. Thus, already in February 2023, the NBU fined the company 2 million hryvnia and ordered to correct the identified violations. In August, Finod's license was revoked because these violations (it is unknown which ones) were not corrected. And in September the company was excluded from the State Register of Financial Institutions.
As Liga.Net once wrote, Finod LLC is far from a newcomer to the foreign exchange market and has previously been a leader, as well as having lost its license. But what's interesting is that despite years of work in the financial sector and leadership of the company, surprisingly little is known about its owners.
Thus, the main owner of the company (85% of the authorized capital) is Alexey Shtevnin, an extremely non-public person, all that is known about him is that he lives in Odessa and, in addition to Finod, as a sole proprietor, he is engaged in the wholesale trade of tea and spices.
But what is most surprising is that the State Property Fund in the Odessa and Nikolaev regions filed claims against the private entrepreneur Shtevnin for non-payment of rent of 15 thousand hryvnia for a room with an area of 9 square meters. At the same time, he himself claims that he paid everything. In any case, a legal battle over a 15 thousand hryvnia debt looks very strange for a person whose company earned UAH 5.4 billion last year. Of course, if he really is its main beneficiary.
Alexey Shtevnin’s partner, Maxim Tkalenko, owns the remaining 15% of Finod and in 2006 appeared as a candidate for people’s deputy on the lists of the Power – Labor Union party. The party was organized by the ex-Prosecutor General of Ukraine (2003-2004) Gennady Vasilyev.
Alfa-Invest Group - billions of hryvnia, possibly in the interests of former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vitaly Zakharchenko
According to Forbes-Ukraine, in second place in the first half of 2022 in the foreign exchange market (UAH 13 billion exchanged at 425 points) was FC Alfa-Invest Group LLC.
The company is owned by three individuals - Vladimir Sichovoy, Svetlana Dmitruk and Denis Dmitruk. The “face” of the company is the latter, who owns 33.89% of the company. Denis Dmitruk describes himself as an experienced “money changer.”
At the same time, the figure of Vladimir Sichevoy, who owns almost 39% of Alfa-Invest Group, is very interesting. At one time, he was the head of the Market Technologies bank, which in 2014 may have been involved in money laundering and contacted the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Vitaly Zakharchenko. Later, this institution was renamed Smartbank, but was eventually liquidated in 2016.
It is interesting that even now law enforcement officers have questions regarding money laundering and fraud for Alfa-Invest Group, which are being considered within the framework of criminal proceedings No. 12023000000001398 dated July 28, 2023. According to law enforcement officers, the company exchanges large amounts of currency values in its exchange offices without checking the identities of clients and the sources of origin of the money.
For example, according to the inventory in one of the company’s exchange offices, more than 3 million UAH, 160 thousand dollars and about 45 thousand euros were seized.
It is curious that data on the financial activities of Alfa-invest Group is not publicly available.
FC Magnat LLC and FC Oktava Finance LLC - exchangers for Alexander Turchinov
450 exchangers and 7.4 billion UAH for January-June 2022, this is the result of the work of Financial Company Magnat LLC, which, according to YouControl, belongs to the group of ex-Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Alexander Turchynov.
Back in 2016, Alexander Turchynov got into a loud scandal when journalists found a connection between him and the largest currency exchange network at that time (1220 exchangers) through FC Absolut Finance LLC. A year later, the NBU took away the license from the company, and the NSDC secretary himself proved his non-involvement in currency exchange in the courts for another 2 years, although to no avail.
Now on the currency exchange market, the family of Alexander Turchynov is represented only by FC Magnat LLC, which, according to OpenDataBot, brought in more than UAH 7 million in net profit.
In turn, FC Oktava Finance LLC is registered at the same address as Magnat - 36-B Evgenia Konovalets Street in Kyiv, and back in 2017, journalists pointed out Alexander Turchynov as the main beneficiary of its activities.
“The financial company “Valta Group” is on the verge of bankruptcy
Approximately 75 exchangers and 2.3 billion UAH of exchanged currency - FC Valta Group LLC. Meanwhile, the company reported income for 2022 of UAH 932 million, although what the figures were in 2021 is unknown, so there is nothing to compare with. But compared to the reporting of other companies, these figures look impressive.
The owners of Valta Group are residents of Odessa Stanislav Kasyan (91%) and Svetlana Lagoda (9%). Little is known about both owners. Stanislav Kasyan owns another 20% of an employment agency in Odessa, and Svetlana Lagoda owns 100% in the financial company Fincom Group.
However, in September 2023, the owners of Valta Group announced plans to liquidate the company. It is possible that the basis for this was criminal proceedings No. 12023000000001398, in which the company is involved together with Alfa-Invest Group.
As is easy to see, despite the outstanding performance of Finod LLC, things are officially not going well for many companies that own exchangers in Ukraine - law enforcement officers come to them every now and then. However, the foreign exchange market in the country is really poorly regulated, and judging by the fact that every second company is suspected of money laundering, considerable funds are circulating in the market. But the owners of Ukrainian exchange offices are clearly in no hurry to report on them, not to mention paying taxes on them.
