Detectives of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine together with SSU employees exposed a criminal scheme involving officials of one of the well-known banks more than 20 economic entities controlled by it and gambling business operators. The banking institution probably contributed to the gaming business in tax evasion in particularly large amounts.

The predetermined amount of unpaid taxes by enterprises is UAH 400 million.

The tax evasion scheme was established through controlled unlicensed mirror Internet casino and betting web resources. They were set up to accept payments using "miscoding" and broken money transfers.

To top up accounts created on unlicensed online gambling and betting sites, cash was deposited through a network of self-service terminals. In the future, the funds were credited to the current accounts of gaming business operators, even in cases of exceeding the turnover limit. The mentioned legal entities are on the simplified taxation system and are not registered as value added tax payers.

The investigation established that the amount of funds transferred through the bank amounted to almost 20 billion hryvnias, of which approximately 400 million hryvnias of taxes were not paid.

In order to obtain an evidence base the ESBU together with the SSU and the NBU, conduct large-scale searches in the bank's premises, offices, and residences of the individuals involved. Pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings on the grounds of a criminal offense provided for in Part 3 of Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (evasion of taxes, fees (mandatory payments)) and Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of power or official position) are carried out by detectives of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine in cooperation with the SSU and under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor General's Office.