Sergey Mayzus: money from the WEX bitcoin exchange may have been laundered through Neklis-Bank of Natalia Kaspersky

Neklis-Bank, more than half of the shares of which belongs to the CEO of InfoWatch Natalya Kasperskaya,allegedly part of a scheme forlaundering funds of clients of the WEX cryptocurrency exchange, the successor of BTC-e. The editor of ForkLog was informed by the owner of the MoneyPolo payment system Sergey Mayzus.

According to him, for the first time the name of Neklis-Bank in the BTC-e case surfaced in December 2017 in his conversation with Timofei Musatov, the lawyer of the alleged creator of the exchange, Alexander Vinnik.

«In December 2017, Musatov summoned me toAthens as a witness in the Vinnik case and boasted that he had become the owner of Neklis Bank, in which he had a large sum of money. Allegedly, the owner of the bank approached him and told him that they had a large cash gap (there is less money in the cash register than on paper) and an audit by the Central Bank was brewing, as a result of which the license could be revoked. He also said that Musatov could not “get out” his money. Then Musatov offered to give the bank to him, after which he «drove more money there», patching up the financial hole»,— Sergey Mayzus said in a comment to ForkLog.

In the spring of 2018, Meisus met in Prague withWEX General Director Dmitry Vasiliev, who said that the exchange allocated $ 600 thousand to Alexander Shevchenko, the wife of Alexander Vinnik, for the expenses of the case of the spouse. Timofei Musatov received $ 1.5 million in cash to save Vinnik. By the way, Vasiliev personally confirmed this information to the editors of ForkLog.

«According to Vasiliev, after this Musatovapproached him with an offer of “lifelong legal support for WEX” for a modest fee of $2.5 million in cash in rubles to the cash desk of Neklis-Bank. Well, in addition, the exchange administrator stamped Musatov with WEX codes for $5 million, as Musatov explained - “to resolve issues with the Greek justice”»,— Sergey Mayzus told the ForkLog editors.

Linking the two stories, Maisus began to studythe activities of Neklis Bank and found out that the bank does not belong to Musatov (in any case, he is not listed in the register of shareholders), but to Natalia Kasperskaya. Note that Musatov is the personal lawyer of the husband of Kaspersky Igor Ashmanov.

Maysus asked Vasiliev to provideevidence of his words on the amounts that they entered Musatova and the bank. To which Vasiliev sent fragments of his correspondence with Timofei Musatov dated October 2017.

Screenshots of correspondence between Sergei Mayzus and Dmitry Vasiliev — 1

Screenshots of correspondence between Sergei Mayzus and Dmitry Vasiliev — 2

Screenshots of correspondence between Dmitry Vasiliev and Timofey Musatov — 1

Screenshots of correspondence between Dmitry Vasiliev and Timofey Musatov — 2

In October 2017, the WEX exchange was just beginning its work, after restarting as the successor of BTC-e.

«According to public statements by managementsites, they launched with a big financial hole. At the forum they even counted it - about $400 million. From which we can conclude that the money that was paid to Musatov was deposited in Neklis-Bank — This is not Vasiliev’s money, and not WEX. This is the money of clients who were simply robbed in the end. I don’t think Musatov didn’t understand this»- noted Sergey Mayzus.

Information about the connection between Neklis-Bank and the activities of the BTC-e/WEX platforms is also confirmed by the Telegram channel «Cello Case»:

«Through Neklis-Bank the beneficiary of the crypto exchangebtc-e/wex Alexey Bilyuchenko transferred money to Timofey Musatov. The tranches went through the Czech accounts of Dmitry Vasiliev, who stole a million of the $4 million transferred.

Let us remind you that on January 10, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation withdrewlicense of Neklis Bank due to the illegal withdrawal of 1.5 billion rubles of assets. The regulator referred to the fact that the bank completely lost its own funds due to “additional formation of reserves for a number of assets,” as a result of which a portfolio of “potentially non-performing loans to individuals” was formed on its balance sheet. for the above amount.

64% of the bank’s shares belong to the Cyprus Organizing Financial Limited offshore owned by Natalya Kasperskaya, the rest is owned by Lorens-Star LLC and individuals.

Kaspersky herself previously told Vedomosti that she had become the owner of the bank “not at her will”, and that this was a “big headache” for her.

In addition, “through an acquaintance,” she put a “quite large deposit” in the bank, which was not returned to her. In general, Natalya Kasperskaya estimated her losses at several hundred million rubles.

Earlier, Sergei Mayzus suggested that the lawyer Timofei Musatov may be related to one of the companies through which $ 4 billion in cryptocurrency from the BTC-e exchange was laundered.