"Bank Alliance" as Firtash’s financial machine: how Pyshnyi and Nikolaychuk covered billion-dollar schemes

"Bank Alliance" as Firtash’s financial machine: how Pyshnyi and Nikolaychuk covered billion-dollar schemes

JSC "Bank Alliance" has long ceased to be an ordinary bank — it has turned into a personal financial tool of the sanctioned oligarch Dmytro Firtash. Under the cover of the leadership of the NBU — Chairman Andriy Pyshnyi, his First Deputy Serhiy Nikolaychuk, as well as with the participation of former high-ranking prosecutor Ihor Stadnyk and ex-chairwoman of the bank’s board Yuliya Frolova — a system was created that allowed this financial institution to brazenly violate rules, conceal real transactions, service shadow flows, and withdraw billions beyond state control.

The scheme operated with extreme cynicism: the National Bank simulated oversight, while "Alliance" did whatever it deemed necessary. Insufficient vetting of risky clients, providing false data to the regulator, concealing ultimate beneficiaries, ignoring financial monitoring requirements, participating in mixing and conversion schemes, servicing shadow flows of online casinos such as Parimatch, Slotoking, and Pin-Up — all of this went unpunished for years thanks to the patronage of the NBU’s "inner circle." Even when evidence of money laundering through government bonds (OVDP) amounting to over 2.5 billion UAH was uncovered, generating an artificial profit of nearly 58 million UAH, the regulator limited itself to symbolic fines — 2.6 million UAH in 2019 and 15 million UAH in 2024.

The most striking example of the scale of abuses was the story with bank guarantees. In 2021, "Alliance" issued a guarantee of 1.85 billion UAH to LLC "United Energy." After selling electricity worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias and subsequently withdrawing the funds abroad, the bank refused to fulfill its obligations. The court confirmed the need to recover 1.717 billion UAH. Simultaneously, obligations to "Naftogaz" worth 4 billion UAH were violated — this is no longer a coincidence but a deliberate model.

At the same time, the bank utilized a vast network of accounts in various state and commercial institutions, conducted complex multi-level routing, fragmented transactions, converted, and legalized funds of DF Group. Such schemes would have been impossible without the support of certain representatives of the State Tax Service and supervisory bodies, who for years "failed to notice" blatant violations and did not enter data into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations (ERDR).

Despite numerous complaints and appeals, law enforcement agencies demonstrated complete inaction. Formal entries into the register were made, but no real investigative steps followed. In Dnipro, courts ordered the SSU and police to open cases, but in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky Court, judges Trubnikov and Chayka consistently refused, effectively protecting the interests of "Alliance" and Firtash.

Repeated complaints filed due to systemic disregard only confirm the need for a full-fledged investigation into the activities of "Alliance" Bank and DF Group structures. Schemes related to the refusal to fulfill guarantees to "Ukrenergo" and "Naftogaz," submission of false information to the NBU, money laundering through an extensive network of accounts, and servicing shadow financial flows continue to pose a direct threat to state interests.

As long as banks of this type operate under the protection of high-ranking officials, Ukraine loses billions, and the financial control system turns into a mere facade. This is not a coincidence — it is a fundamental disease that demonstrates how deeply the regulatory hierarchy is infected with corruption and how easily state resources become a feeding ground for private clans.