Ukraine’s security agency, the SBU, said it has broken up a criminal ring handling illegal transfers of money. The scheme saw 3 men in Kyiv region handling cross-border inflows from Russia via the sanctioned e-payment services with profits allegedly later going on subversion activities in Ukraine.

‘They created a network of anonymous internet-platforms used for receiving ‘orders’ for purchase, sales or exchange of e-money [coming] from non-bank banned systems of the Russian Federation. These illegal operations were handled by them in an exchange kiosk,’ said the SBU.

The police said its has raid seized 13 million hryvnas in cash, computers and books that evidenced the illegal practice. The investigation is ongoing.