Diamond Pay not ready to give up

A scandal is brewing in the financial market. The payment system "Diamond Pay", which was stripped of its licence due to links with Russia, is not prepared to lose hundreds of millions in blocked assets and has devised a scheme to remove them from the freeze.

The scheme involves shell companies, state banks, courts in frontline territories, private bailiffs and charitable organisations. To date, "Diamond Pay" has managed to withdraw 54 million hryvnia. A transaction worth 89 million was blocked by a commercial bank as suspicious. In the coming days, the withdrawal of a further 152 million hryvnia is being prepared.

Financial experts and bankers note that the mechanism employed by "Diamond Pay" lawyers constitutes a dangerous precedent that requires immediate response and blocking.

Now, a bit more detail.

On 26 July, the NBU stripped the payment system "Diamond Pay" of its licence due to its links with Russia. At that time, the company's accounts held 495 million hryvnia and 72 million dollars. These funds were blocked, and Maks Sygalov and his associates could not use them. However, within a month, there was not a single judge's decision to arrest "Diamond Pay" accounts in the context of criminal cases related to the company. This remains a separate issue.

During this time, "Diamond Pay" lawyers were developing and began implementing the following scheme. On 19 August, two little-known companies — "KIRAMIT" and "Midlskay" — filed lawsuits in the Maryinsky District Court of Donetsk Oblast to recover debts from "Diamond Pay". "KIRAMIT" demanded 53.7 million hryvnia, while "Midlskay" demanded 86 million.

According to the version, these companies allegedly provided "Diamond Pay" with advertising services worth over 3.5 million dollars, and "Diamond" failed to pay. All of this is obviously sham agreements, which were drawn up retroactively to create artificial debts. The judge was supposed to look into this thoroughly, given the NBU's decision.

However, on 23 August, judge Serhiy Lypchansky ruled in favour of these companies, ordering "Diamond Pay" to pay 54 and 86 million hryvnia respectively, and ruling to immediately enforce the decision to "prevent a threat to the life and health of the participants in the proceedings during the period of martial law".

The court decision was enforced immediately. On 26 August, private bailiff Oleksandr Syvokozov from Dnipro issued a ruling on the compulsory enforcement of the decision, and the money was debited from "Diamond Pay" accounts at the state "Sense Bank" in favour of "KIRAMIT".

The management of "Sense Bank" raised no questions about the documents related to the transfer of over one million dollars from a company deemed by the NBU to be linked to Russia. This raises doubts, as it is unlikely that such negligence would be tolerated at this level.

Shortly after, 53.7 million hryvnia were transferred to various charitable organisations and funds, which have not yet been identified.

The second lawsuit for 86 million hryvnia was blocked by the management of "MTB Bank", which deemed it suspicious.

Next, "Diamond Pay" plans a new move on 9 September, when the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Commercial Court will hear the lawsuit by "Lentis Devils" for 151.9 million hryvnia.