Business associations, cyber police and MPs discussed money laundering and drop schemes
On March 31, the Ukrainian Business Council together with the American Chamber of Commerce (ACC) and the European Business Association (EBA) organized the eighth quarterly conference on retail trade de-shadowing and anti-smuggling. The Economic Expert Platform acted as an analytical partner.
Olga Vasilevska-Smagliuk, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, spoke about the problem of “drops” – according to the National Bank, about UAH 200 billion a year passes through such fronts. Last year, financial institutions broke off relations with more than 80,000 clients who had participated in drop schemes.
To combat this problem, draft law No. 11043 was adopted, which increased fines for payment service providers for violating the law to 5% of the volume of the transaction conducted in violation. Among the next steps in the fight against drops, she mentioned the creation of a unified register of drops and the introduction of criminal liability for such activities. In particular, the Committee on Law Enforcement is working on draft law No. 10190, which criminalizes the provision of services to electronic and communication fraudulent organizations.
Ms. Vasilevska-Smagliuk also said that until the legislation on the register of drops and criminalization of their activities is adopted, the NBU and banks are taking temporary measures: from October 1, 2024, the NBU introduced a temporary limit for card transfers between individuals in the amount of UAH 150,000 per month. And on December 10, leading banks signed a memorandum to tighten restrictions on card transfers.
The MP also touched upon the reboot of the State Financial Monitoring Service. She noted that the updated memorandum with the IMF provides for an independent audit of the strengths and weaknesses of the SFMS by the end of December 2025. However, the MP emphasized the need for a comprehensive analysis of the entire anti-money laundering system, not just one body.
“I insist that we need to simultaneously analyze all those involved in the prevention of money laundering in a comprehensive manner… Only if all 5 elements [primary level, SFMS, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, courts] are assessed simultaneously, in a complex, the picture will be three-dimensional and adequate,” emphasized Olga Vasylevska-Smagliuk.
Representatives of the Cyberpolice reported that after the introduction of restrictions on money transfers, there was a certain decrease in the use of drops, but now fraudsters are moving to using individual entrepreneurs. According to law enforcement officials, a whole infrastructure has been formed in the drops market that serves not only fraud, but also drug trafficking and illegal gambling.
An important problem is the numerous telegram channels through which illegal goods are sold. Although there are mechanisms for blocking them, they are not effective enough, as new ones quickly appear in place of the blocked channel.
Myroslav Laba, an expert at the Economic Expert Platform, emphasized the importance of blocking the TV channels that sell illegal products. There are about 50 such large channels in Ukraine, and to reach a TV channel with 20-30 thousand subscribers means significant amounts of money and time. So blocking tg channels is productive and worth the effort.
Oleh Hetman, economist, noted that the fight against illegal schemes and money laundering is definitely a set of measures, including changes to the legislation to introduce a “drops register”, increased responsibility for relevant violations, and a reboot of the Financial Monitoring Service, etc.
Oksana Zgurieva, an expert at the Economic Expert Platform, emphasized that “individual entrepreneur bushes” and “cashing out through an individual entrepreneur” are quite possible to track, as they are characterized by certain common features. For example, if the entire annual turnover passes through a sole proprietorship in a month and then the sole proprietorship “sleeps”, this is a sign that it is probably involved in a “scheme”.
Oksana Shvets, representative of the American Chamber of Commerce, noted that one of the biggest schemes is “postal smuggling,” large gray schemes have been built because of the exemption for international parcels, and the state budget loses about UAH 17 billion a year. The business representative called on MPs to support draft laws No. 12429 and No. 12430, which do not complicate administration, minimize gray schemes and level the playing field.
The event also discussed the opening of banking secrecy for the tax service and the creation of a unified register of bank accounts, which is a requirement for Ukraine to join the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).
Following the discussion, the participants reached a common opinion on all the issues discussed and agreed to work together on the relevant regulations.
