Alyona Dehrik-Shevtsova under sanctions but with a UK license: how a suspect in a billion-dollar money laundering case bypassed international control

Alyona Dehrik-Shevtsova under sanctions but with a UK license: how a suspect in a billion-dollar money laundering case bypassed international control

While a criminal case is opened against Alyona Dehrik-Shevtsova in Ukraine and the NSDC imposes personal sanctions against her, her company, Smartflow Payments Limited (brand Sends), is officially operating in the UK under a license from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

This is reported by Capital.

In April 2025, it became known that Dehrik (also known as Alyona Shevtsova), a figure in a money laundering case involving 5 billion hryvnias through iBox Bank, is the director of the British fintech company Sends. This fact is confirmed in the open registry of the British financial regulator.

What is the FCA and what does the license mean?

FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) — the main financial regulator in the UK, responsible for overseeing the financial services market, banks, brokers, payment systems, electronic money issuers. The FCA registry states that Smartflow Payments Limited is licensed to issue electronic money (e-money), has the right to provide payment services, and is subject to anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) regulations. This allows the company to open wallets, process transactions, conduct P2P transfers, and engage in e-commerce.

The identification problem: Shevtsova or Dehrik?

One of the reasons the British regulator might not have accounted for the criminal cases and sanctions against Alyona Dehrik is the formal discrepancy in her surnames. In Ukraine, she appears as Alyona Dehrik-Shevtsova, whereas in British records — simply as Alyona Shevtsova, without mentioning «Dehrik». It is likely that she obtained a passport abroad solely under her husband’s surname, opting not to use a double-barreled surname in international registers. This allowed her to avoid automatic matching with her Ukrainian identity.

Context: Dehrik’s past and connection to suspicious payment schemes

In her public presentations, Dehrik positions Sends as an «ethical platform focused on fraud prevention and transparency». At the same time, she is evading investigation, is under NSDC sanctions, and her former companies have been involved in cases related to shadow gambling business, operations with Russian banks, and crypto exchanges to the «Mir» payment system cards. Among others — LeoGaming, FC «Leo», iBox Bank. According to the investigation, it was through these structures that the «miscoding» scheme was implemented — substituting the purpose of payments, which enabled the legalization of hundreds of millions of hryvnias of income from illegal gambling business.

Informational reference

iBox Bank — a bank that lost its license in 2023 due to systemic violations of financial monitoring legislation and involvement in a money laundering scheme.

LeoGaming and FC «Leo» — companies associated with P2P transfers to the Russian Federation, particularly to Sberbank, VTB, Tinkoff cards.

“Bilosnizhka-2013” — a company with a cynical name, registered in Ukraine. It was associated with offshore structures Beaulieu Trade Inc (Panama) and Mossada Investments Ltd (Cyprus). Dehrik was listed as a manager. According to investigators, these structures were used to service shadow payment flows related to gambling.

A license in London — a matter of time?

In Ukraine, Dehrik-Shevtsova is a figure in a money laundering case that is in the final stage of pre-trial investigation. In the UK, she is a director of a fintech company with an official license. This is not just a conflict of registers. It is a systemic flaw in international compliance: payment platforms can change public names, mask pasts, and enter new markets without proper disclosure of beneficiaries and the origin of funds.

It is quite likely that the FCA did not have complete information about Ms. Dehrik-Shevtsova’s criminal and sanction background — due to the absence of a direct link between her British identity and Ukrainian affairs. But this is a temporary blindness that is most likely to be rectified soon.

British institutions are not accustomed to remaining in the dark. And complete information about Ms. Dehrik-Shevtsova’s activities will soon be heading to London.