Dmytro Rukin, one international payment system’s head of sales, first stole from his boss, and then, to add insult to injury, designed financial scams in the countries of Latin America to launder the blood-soaked Russian money. Ukrainian lawmen are about to put the main culprit and his associates on the INTERPOL wanted list.
As the war with Russia broke out, rate of fraud-related crimes in Ukraine went up by a third, later coming to a lower, more stable level. This is the data provided by the National Police of Ukraine. The reasons behind this significant spike are crystal clear: when the full-fledged enemy offensive began, the underworld felt invincible for a moment; country’s law enforcement, however, got a hold of the mayhem in the following months. The decrease of the fraud-related crimes can be easily explained by a fair share of scammers fleeing the country, relocating to the EU, and outsourcing their risky business to Latin American countries. Which actually makes a lot of sense: living in Europe is nice, but the laws are harsher; moreover, the competition is pretty tight in the field of high-tech fraud.
One such case is currently mauled over by Ukrainian media. Dmytro Rukin, to be exact. He used to be head of sales in one of the international payment systems. This system that works with websites, mobile applications and services, is a worldwide integrator of payment services, and a partner of some of the world’s largest financial institutions to boot.
After making his way into Spain against the law, Rukin deemed himself too slick, and kept stealing from companies he used to work for. According to the company’s audit, it’s been established that Dmytro Rukin, Nazar Yanko, Serhii Hanin, and Kateryna Horobets pocketed company funds and, oftentimes, in conspiracy with merchants’ managers, had a say in fluctuations of tariffs, which means they were in on the take. The crew was basically engaged in a hostile takeover of the regional branch, leading the Spanish HQ staff astray.
Picture this: three Ukrainian men, who cowardly fled the country, stole money from an international company, founded by Ukrainians. As if that’s not enough, this very company keeps paying taxes to support the Ukrainian servicemen on the front.
Ukrainian police opened a criminal case: Rukin and his crooked buddies Nazar Yanko, Serhii Hanin and Kateryna Horobets are suspected to have stolen the company funds.
This is still not the end of the story. Even with the ongoing investigation against Dmytro Rukin and co-conspirators, the criminals keep on hustling in Latin America. Registered to their names, several legal entities are involved in whitewashing criminal gains – Victo Postanova Sociedad Limitada in Spain, Softinegra Holding Limitada and LaFinteca, Instituicao de Pagamento LTDA in Brazil, and Pagos Nacionales S.A.C in Argentina.
The company that Rukin & Co call their headliner, Victo Postanova SL, was registered in Barcelona in autumn of 2022. Listed as company’s CEO is Dmytro Rukin.
The company has a website, LinkedIn and Facebook pages. However, all of these only present the most basic set of information and hiring options. No data on Victo Postanova SL operations or any achievements whatsoever. Social media pages are quieter than a tomb.
Spanish registers have records of Dmytro Rukin’s attempts to make money off the Spanish state budget: he applied for financial support on behalf of his teammates, yet the state authorities of Spain turned down his request.
LinkedIn page lists Rukin as the head of LaFinteca, payment system for the countries of Latin America. Company’s LinkedIn page claims the business is based in Sao Paolo, Brazil. However, judging by the employees’ profiles (for example, the company’s head of development department), HQ is in Barcelona. LaFinteca home page also has zero information.
These are telltale signs of a front with dodgy swindlers running the show.
At this point in time, Dmytro Rukin and his associates are known to be hiding in the EU, and still conduct business affairs in Latin America via BetterBro payment system and LaFinteca brand.
Ukrainian lawmen have at their disposal correspondence between Rukin, Yanko, Hanin, and Horobets, where they discuss laundering of Russian money in the EU through the persons under sanctions, transactions of Russian gambling money. To convert cryptocurrency into hard cash, the criminal outfit created their own online currency exchange spot novachange.cc.
Law enforcement agencies of Ukraine are bringing the investigation to its swift closure. In the days and weeks to come, all of the persons of interest – Rukin, Yanko, Hanin, Horobets – will be placed on the INTERPOL wanted list.