Payments for replenishment of Wargaming LLC gaming accounts in Ukraine via the GlobalMoney payment system will be fully blocked in the nearest future. The GlobalMoney company, which is suspected of aiding tax evasion, laundering dirty money for other companies, and possible financing of terrorism in the self-proclaimed LDPR, has recently appeared in several civil lawsuits in court. There are high chances of bankruptcy, thus many players of Wargaming (World of Tanks, World of Warships, and other games) will lose their money.
All GlobalMoney partners in Ukraine are currently breaking the contracts with this company and demanding to stop accepting payments for their services.
The Economic Court of the city of Kyiv opened a case based on the claim of Moneyveo Shvydka Finansova Dopomoha Limited Liability Company (Moneyveo Shvydka Finansova Dopomoha LLC, Moneyveo fintech company) to Limited Liability Company Globalmoney (LLC GLOBALMONEY, GlobalMoney payment system, Global24.ua) on the protection of intellectual property rights. This information can be found in the court’s decision in case no. 910/6038/21 of April 20, 2021.
Withing the lawsuit, Moneyveo asks to prohibit GlobalMoney from using the trademark for products, prohibit the use of the Moneyveo commercial name, and also oblige it to stop accepting payments in favor of the plaintiff.
The management of Moneyveo requires GlobalMoney to stop using the trademark and accept payments.
Ukrainian journalists informed the audience about other lawsuits against GlobalMoney and the severance of relations with this company.
The companies refuse to work with GlobalMoney because of numerous problems with law enforcement agencies, the National Bank of Ukraine, as well as the sanctions of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine, which will be imposed in the nearest future on its beneficiary Vyacheslav Strelkovsky.
It is worth noting that US law enforcement agencies and American journalists drew attention to the illegal activities of the GlobalMoney payment system.
At the very same time, Ukrainian journalists used open registers of information to highlight the fact that the Innovative Technologies venture corporate investment fund became another co-owner of the GlobalMoney payment system with a contribution of UAH 15 million made in 2017. Since 2011, or maybe even earlier, Ivan Avramov was the president and head of the supervisory board of this fund. It is worth noting that he is officially known as the “right hand” and the closest business partner of the Ukrainian criminal kingpin Yuri Ivanyushchenko.
“Ivanyushchenko and Abramov are real criminal kingpins with their own status in the criminal world. In order to solve their problems, they hired bandit groups, which would use anything, and break virtually any law to reach their goals. Ivanyushchenko and Avramov were the symbols of the bandit economy of Yanukovych. Ivanyushchenko was sanctioned by the EU, and he is also wanted in Ukraine. At the same time, Avramov is not wanted. He is not persecuted these days,” said the editor-in-chief of the largest Ukrainian media called Censor.NET, Yuri Butusov.
The GlobalMoney payment system has come to the attention of law enforcement agencies many times.
In December 2020, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies discovered that GlobalMoney was involved in an illegal tax evasion scheme with the help of the Allo stores. Criminal proceedings have been opened against GlobalMoney. The company itself, the Allo chain, GlobalMoney, and other companies are suspected of creating a fraudulent tax evasion scheme that caused the total damage of $28.5 million.
The issuer of electronic assets used by GlobalMoney is “Bank Alliance”. The bank’s management confirmed the existence of the request of the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office and law enforcement agencies to block all accounts of GlobalMoney. The bank executed the decision to block the accounts of the bank as part of the case on the seizure of funds.
Currently, the National Bank of Ukraine continues an unscheduled on-site inspection of JSC “Bank Alliance ” (from May 2019 to December 2020) on certain issues of compliance with the requirements of the legislation of Ukraine, which regulates relations in the field of preventing and countering the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime, the financing of terrorism and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. During the period from December 11, 2020, to February 11, 2021, a similar inspection was conducted at the offices of GlobalMoney. The National Bank officially confirmed both inspections. According to a senior source in the National Bank, dozens of violations of banking legislation and facts of money laundering have already been found. Six months ago, GlobalMoney became a provider of game services for the Wargaming game developing company. Since October 2020, the GlobalMoney system processes all payments received from the balance of mobile phones to replenish the game accounts in World of Tanks, World of Warplanes, World of Warships, and other products of one of the most famous game developers in the world.
According to the payment documents available at the disposal of journalists, it is clear that the funds that go to the accounts of GlobalMoney for replenishing Wargaming LLC games through the terminals are added to the big dirty money of Ukrainian companies that avoid paying taxes and want to launder their dirty money.
These funds are withdrawn through fictitious firms and bank accounts to EU countries, including Cyprus.
Journalists sent questions about the money laundering scheme to the management of Wargaming LLC, in particular, to the Head of Payments and the Director of Wargaming Group Limited, Makis Savvides, and the Head of Global Payments at Wargaming LLC, Adamos Savvides. It is also possible that the following employees of the financial and other departments of Wargaming LLC are involved in money laundering: Elena Lakhadynova, Nika Lucacova, Roman Romanovsky, Tamara Sakolchik, and Filippos Kyriacou. All these people appear in the documents and correspondence with the management of the GlobalMoney payment system.
According to a source in law enforcement agencies, US law enforcement agencies joined the investigation of GlobalMoney. The reason is the fact that the traffic from the global24.ua (the payment system’s website) is redirected to servers in the United States, while payments are processed by various payment systems in the USA. It is also worth noting that American law enforcement officers and the prosecutor’s office of the state of New York, which conducts a tax investigation, are interested in people and companies that work with GlobalMoney, in particular, Wargaming LLC. This company has a legal entity in the United States called Wargaming America Inc., while the servers of the company are also located in California. The company processes payments using American banks.
The likely outcome of this investigation conducted by US law enforcement agencies is the seizure of funds of GlobalMoney, Wargaming LLC, and other individuals, not to mention other serious restrictions.
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