Mindich's tapes and Hetmantsev's statement open a new context for the liquidation of Ibox Bank
Today, Interfax-Ukraine reported a statement by Danylo Getmantsev about the possible creation of a criminal group in the state-owned Sense Bank to service illegal gambling. According to the head of the Verkhovna Rada Finance Committee, the situation around Sense Bank may indicate not isolated violations, but an organized system of servicing illegal payments in the gambling business.
This statement takes on special significance in the context of the events surrounding JSC Ibox Bank, which was deprived of its license by the National Bank of Ukraine. The regulator explained this by systematic violations in the field of financial monitoring.
However, now a fundamentally different question arises: Wasn’t the liquidation of Ibox Bank an actual stage of eliminating competitors and redistributing the payment services market, and not a real cessation of the problem in the market?
After all, after the deprivation of Ibox Bank’s license, according to published information, the problem of illegal gambling establishments and payments did not disappear. On the contrary, we are talking about the possible operation of such a system in the state-owned Sense Bank.
The key question today is not whether the “Ibox Bank scheme” existed. On the contrary, new circumstances force us to look at history from the opposite side: whether the deprivation of Ibox Bank’s license was not an element of the removal of one of the participants in the payment infrastructure from the market, after which the corresponding flows could be organized through the state-owned Sense Bank, under the supervision of “watchers”.
It is in this context that the “Mindich tapes” acquire fundamental importance. If the published materials indicate a possible informal influence of private individuals on Sense Bank, its management or supervisory board, then the question of who exactly gained control over payment flows after the liquidation of Ibox Bank becomes a question not only of banking supervision, but also of a possible corruption conspiracy.
That is, the chronology looks more than indicative: first, in March 2023, the National Bank revokes the license of Ibox Bank and at the same time begins criminal and public prosecution of its management, at the same time the problem of illegal casinos and gambling payments does not disappear, and, according to the published information, the “flows” of payment acceptance in the gambling services market are already organized through the state-owned Sense Bank — under the control of completely different groups of influence, close to the leadership of the then law enforcement agencies – Deputy Prosecutor General Dmytro Verbytskyi and top SBU official Artem Shyl. By the way, both of these ex-law enforcement officers are defendants in high-profile criminal proceedings being investigated by the NABU.
The story with Ibox Bank was used as a cover for cleaning up the payment services market in the gambling business and transferring gambling payment flows to Sense Bank, which was actually managed by a group of people close to Mindich.
It is especially important that criminal proceedings No. 72023000500000071 dated 09/14/2023 against the managers of JSC "IBOX BANK" were closed by the decision of the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv dated 07/29/2025 in case No. 752/15954/25, left unchanged by the decision of the Kyiv Court of Appeal dated 10/02/2025. And the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv is considering case No. 757/15208/26 on compensation to the top management of IBOX Bank for damage caused by illegal decisions and actions of pre-trial investigation bodies within the framework of this particular criminal proceedings.
This gives grounds to assert that the criminal version that accompanied the information pressure on the management of IBOX Bank did not find proper confirmation in court.
In this story, there are no less questions for the National Bank. If the NBU applied the harshest measure to Ibox Bank in March 2023 — revocation of the license, then society should receive an answer: did the regulator monitor the further movement of the relevant payment flows? Did the NBU analyze where the market went after the liquidation of Ibox Bank? And why, if similar risks could later manifest themselves in the state-owned Sense Bank, was the state's reaction so selective?
We will remind you that, according to People's Deputy Oleksandr Dubinsky, by agreement with the Deputy Head of the President's Office Oleg Tatarov, Artem Shylo, an SBU employee and former advisor to the OP, was removed from the NABU case on the purchase of products at inflated prices for Ukrzaliznytsia.
Four people who were part of the group that appropriated more than UAH 15 million during the purchase of repair and construction materials and UAH 140 million for the purchase of cable and wire products for JSC Ukrzaliznytsia should appear in court. Among the defendants in this case was Artem Shylo.
We will also recall that the investigation into the illegal enrichment of the former Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Dmytro Verbytsky, who was dismissed from his post almost two years ago, is being delayed.
On May 13, 2024, the NABU opened criminal proceedings No. 52024000000000231 under the article on illegal enrichment (368-5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) after the high-profile revelations of Radio Liberty and the program "Schemes". However, the case is still at the stage of pre-trial investigation without any announced preventive measures.
