From payment systems to the closure of iBox Bank: the story behind Alyona Shevtsova’s financial empire and her husband’s influence

25 March 2026 , 18:07

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Today, Alyona Shevtsova (née Dehrik) is not just an entrepreneur, but also a figure in high-profile financial investigations involving the banking sector and payment business.

Her name has been linked to the liquidation of iBox Bank, suspicions of large-scale money laundering through the gaming market, and the transfer of billions of hryvnias, which remain under investigation and involved in ongoing court proceedings.

However, the rapid growth of her financial empire began long before these events — at a time when her husband, Yevhen Shevtsov, was building a career in law enforcement and seeking positions at the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). It was during this period that scandals emerged around the family, connected to the “cleaning up” of compromising information and pressure on the media.

Below is archival material on how the assets and influence of the Shevtsov-Dehrik family were formed and the role that her husband’s law enforcement status played in protecting and advancing their business.

Recently, events occurred in the Ukrainian media space that, in a way, had the effect of a bomb suddenly going off.

The first to feel the impact were many online publications, which suffered prolonged and powerful DDoS attacks on their websites. Among the narrow circle of owners and administrators of online media, most agreed that the attacks were likely initiated by individuals connected to the circle surrounding the well-known businesswoman Alyona (Alona) Dehrik (Shevtsova), against the backdrop of her husband Yevhen Shevtsov’s potential appointment to the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), writes journalist Serhiy Kuzin.

Meanwhile, some publications reported that the Dehrik-Shevtsov couple spent around $200,000 on creating a positive image and “cleaning up” compromising material online. At the same time, many online platforms were hit by massive DDoS attacks.

It remains unclear what the organizers of these actions hoped to achieve. DDoS attacks are costly and illegal under the criminal code. Accordingly, those who carry them out must have either financial or administrative resources to successfully “take down” websites.

All of these events, as mentioned above, coincided with the competition for a position at the SBI for Yevhen Shevtsov — until then, a relatively unknown figure in law enforcement. In fact, there was not even a photo of this candidate for the SBI online. Unlike his wife, the well-known Alyona Volodymyrivna Dehrik, later Shevtsova. This raised questions, as the activities of Mr. Shevtsov’s wife provoked numerous inquiries.

It is possible that measures to “clean up” internet resources were taken precisely to avoid questions — again, if we trust the owners of the attacked platforms. If the couple indeed took such measures to secure a promising career future for the head of the family entering the SBI to combat corruption, it is entirely logical.

One problem for the Dehrik-Shevtsov family was that Alyona Volodymyrivna Dehrik’s company, Leogaming, had previously been involved in several scandals related to suspected money laundering.

In December 2013, a criminal proceeding (No. 32013110000000298) was opened against Dehrik O.V. and Shevtsov Y.A. According to the investigation, Alyona Volodymyrivna Dehrik, together with Yevhen Shevtsov and others, created a mechanism for legalizing income obtained through criminal means.

It should be noted that this criminal case was repeatedly closed and reopened over the years. Therefore, it is understandable why Alyona Dehrik and her husband Yevhen Shevtsov might have been concerned about his smooth appointment…

Representatives of civil society organizations, who accuse the Shevtsov family of fictitious entrepreneurship, legalizing (laundering) criminally obtained funds, and tax evasion, claim that “covering up” criminal case No. 32013110000000298 was made possible thanks to two individuals:

Namely, Hennadiy L. Strynzh, a senior investigator for particularly important cases in the Third Division of the Kyiv Main Directorate of the State Fiscal Service, and Ihor V. Skorokhod, First Deputy Head of the Kyiv Main Directorate of the State Fiscal Service. The latter, incidentally, is well known in narrow circles of the SFS, remained in service after the escape of his former patron Oleksandr Klymenko, and, unlike his former colleagues, quickly advanced in his career.

Another influential person, whether wittingly or not, contributed to the accusations against the Shevtsov family for money laundering being largely dismissed. This is Yakiv Smoliy, head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), who officially acknowledged knowing Alyona Dehrik. In response to a parliamentary inquiry by MP Andriy Lozovyi, Smoliy personally signed a document stating that the NBU had no claims against Alyona Dehrik and saw no violations in her actions. Moreover, the fact that Smoliy’s daughter and Alyona Dehrik are related as godmothers is hardly a concern…

Perhaps that is why Leogaming Pay in 2016 received a state license to transfer funds without opening accounts. The Leo payment system itself was granted permission to operate slightly later, in January 2017. The formal justification, considering that the Leo payment system was declared as offering a broad range of services to the public (not just online casinos), appeared entirely legitimate.

This raises the question: if everything about Alyona Dehrik and Yevhen Shevtsov is legitimate, why would they organize attacks on websites and mass replacement of negative materials with positive coverage in the media? Of course, this assumes Dehrik and Shevtsov were involved. But someone in their circle was clearly connected, because the DDoS attacks coincided with mass content replacement, and some of the platforms that had their content replaced were also targeted by DDoS. There are many such examples, but there is no need to crowd the space — those involved already know what is meant.

Supporters of the Shevtsov family (the author of this article is far from claiming that Alyona Dehrik and Yevhen Shevtsov personally conducted the “internet cleanup,” let alone the DDoS attacks) acted hastily, because during Yevhen Shevtsov’s appointment process at the SBI, the Dehrik-Shevtsov family faced truly critical days, where the right hand no longer knew what the left was doing.

But all these maneuvers were in vain. SBI Director Roman Truba rejected all candidates approved by the SBI commission. Among them was Yevhen Oleksandrovych Shevtsov, who had already been newly appointed as head of the First Directorate for Pre-trial Investigations of the State Bureau of Investigation.