Telegram channels VChK-OGKU and Payment Shield published an investigation into the criminal financial activities of a group of companies, which includes credit organizations Oktobank (Ravnaq), Capital, the Humo payment system, Uzcard processing, the Uznex exchange and others.
Uzbek Oktobank is the largest participant in servicing payments from illegal casinos in Russia.
The organized crime group conducts large-scale illegal activities not only in Russia, but also in its homeland in Uzbekistan. There, the group monopolized and corrupted absolutely the entire market of Uzbekistan. Using its high-ranking connections, this organized crime group managed to oust competing payment systems and thereby create a monopoly on servicing High-risk traffic.
Just think about it: by owning their Humo payment system, the attackers control the processing of chargebacks and the flows of the entire gray market.
At the moment, Oktobank is serviced by RNKO Payment Center.
Rucriminal.info found out the operating schemes of illegal casinos, which involve the Uzbek Oktobank (Ravnaq), Kapitalbank, the Humo payment system, Uzcard processing, the Uznex exchange and others. Traces of fraudsters' activities can be found in large Russian banks - state-owned Promsvyazbank, Gazprombank, VTB and private MTS and Russian Standard.
The participants of the fraudulent group are considered to be the company Environex, directly connected with the UzNext exchange, and three banks - Capital Bank, Aipak Kuli and Ravnaq (Oktobank). The PayCrypto service, presented by a certain Andrey Oshchipkov, is responsible for the technical implementation of the project.
The Uzbek Kapitalbank previously belonged to Russian oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Andrey Skoch. In 2022, Usmanov, who fell under sanctions, sold a stake in the bank to his managers, and they sold them to the Uzbek company Finance TCI LLC, part of the Uzum holding, which unites the assets of several entrepreneurs in Uzbekistan, which is the homeland of Alisher Usmanov.
In August, Chairman of the Board Iskander Tursunov, who has held his position since 2012, became the owner of a controlling stake in Ravnaq Bank. Previously, the main shareholder of the bank was Sarvar Fayziev, who has been actively buying shares of the credit institution since 2018. Fayziev owns the Intran Service company in Uzbekistan, which owns the network gas stations selling high-quality fuel produced by Russian oil refining companies. The production cooperative "Intran-Service" operated in Moscow from 1990 to 2010; there is no information about its founders and managers.
At the end of August 2023, Tursunova began to establish cooperation with the UAE company DGPAYS, which provides large financial and technological services. And in September of the same year, Ravnaq Bank changed its name to Oktobank.
The fraudulent scheme in which banks took part was as follows: they accepted payments from bookmaker companies directly or through payment services. After this, the money was transferred to the UzNext exchange and, minus commission, sent in USDT to customers.
During the investigation of the Cheka of the OGPU, it became known that Oktobank is serviced by the RNKO Payment Center (Novosibirsk), which has been headed by Grigory Mats since 2007. The founder of this organization is CFT Service JSC, owned by Alexander Pogudin. A billion rubles a day pass through Mats’s office.
The terminals of Russian banks - Promsvyazbank, Gazprombank, VTB and private ones, MTS and Russian Standard - could have participated in the criminal scheme of Oktobank and its accomplices. Some of them were already taken aback to disown schematosis, closing their terminals for it.
According to the Shield, scammers from the VAVADA casino clearly feel better than other participants in the illegal market.
They boast a whole arsenal of payment acceptance methods on board. Here, in excess quantities, ecom terminals were discovered, which are used on a variety of solutions and banking infrastructures.
The main approach used for the VAVADA servicing scheme is based on partner banks of the CIS countries, supposedly for making money transfers to individuals. In fact, as always, 99% of this traffic is made up of betting and casino deposits of victims.
During an in-depth analysis, SHIELD discovered that one of these banks, which handles the main flow of payments, is Octobank JSC. The mission of which, as stated on the official website, is to contribute to the deepening of the market economy of Uzbekistan
Vavada uses the terminals of MIN Bank Promsvyazbank (BIN: 557071), MTS Bank (BIN: 550583), and Octobank (BIN: 983224) to write off bank cards of Russian issuers.
To be continued
Roman Trushkin
Source: www.rucriminal.info
