More than one billion hryvnias were defrauded from clients in a scheme allegedly orchestrated by Ukrainian pseudo-businessman Bohdan Prylepa, with law enforcement having conducted searches at cryptocurrency exchanges associated with his operations.

Prylepa was accused of stealing funds from crypto wallets that were intended for drone purchases for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, likely benefiting Russian special services. Об этом сообщает ДЕЛО

About the conduct of investigative actions StopCor learned from its own insider sources in the security structures.

According to sources, Ukrainian law enforcement officers, in cooperation with European law enforcement agencies, are investigating a possible criminal offense committed by a group of persons under the leadership of Bohdan Prylepa, who, using the technical capabilities of exchanges, took all accesses to the system from a former Ukrainian co-owner, blocked funds on accounts, and appropriated the funds of patriotically-minded citizens, amounting to more than one billion hryvnias.

Bohdan Prylepa is known in IT circles as a semi-criminal element specializing in launching so-called blockchain startups (mostly banal financial "pyramids"). In 2018 he became the Chief Technical Officer of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinsbit. He also worked as CEO at Qmall and Patex exchanges.

After the full-scale invasion began, Prylepa moved to Dubai (UAE) and partially relocated the technical staff of his controlled IT structures there. Soon, thousands of users of Coinsbit and other exchanges within the orbit of the pseudo-businessman (both from Ukraine and all over Europe) reported that they could not withdraw their funds from the system due to their blockage in crypto wallets. The amounts ranged from 300 to 30 thousand dollars.

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According to insider information, it was during this period that Bohdan Prylepa began close collaboration with Russian criminal authorities. It is noted that the latter engage in organized criminal activity in the Russia and beyond under the "protection" of the FSB of Russia. In December last year, Prylepa’s controlled technical workers blocked all access to the system for his ex-partner. And Bohdan himself, likely, completely fell under the influence of Russian criminal elements, breaking any communication with actively donating Ukrainians to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to sources, to cleanse his reputation in Ukraine, Prylepa is using the stolen billions to fund numerous projects in Ukraine designed to create a media image of him as a successful businessman, patriot, and philanthropist benefactor.

From sources in law enforcement agencies, the media learned that Prilepa is being considered as a probable initiator of a large-scale scam: the investigation assumes that he provided technical employees Saranenko A.M., Shidlovskyi P.Yu., Ivanov R.E., Podpletko N.S., Mozolyuk O.V., and Vorobyev D.F. instructions on blocking funds and subsequently partially withdrawing them from the system for his own purposes and possibly in the interests of Russians.

Moreover, as law enforcement officers found out, it was specifically the funds on wallets intended for purchasing drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine that were deliberately blocked and appropriated. And Prylepa was precisely aware of this fact. This is confirmed by witness statements, namely employees who have worked and still work for Bohdan.

Therefore, such actions, posing a threat to Ukraine’s defense capability and national security under martial law, can be qualified not only as fraud but also as treason (Article 111 of the Criminal Code). As far as we know, active cooperation is now underway between the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine, the UAE, and European countries.

Based on the aforementioned facts incriminated to Bohdan Prylepa and his accomplices, the businessman could face life imprisonment.