- Two individuals have been sentenced to a combined 13 years for laundering over £6 million by exploiting the demand for vehicles in Ukraine
- The group purchased UK vehicles with illicit cash, sold them in Ukraine, and converted the proceeds into cryptocurrency
- Their operations were linked to a Russian national previously convicted under the National Crime Agency’s Operation Destabilise
A sophisticated money laundering operation that exploited the Russia-Ukraine conflict has led to the imprisonment of two individuals for a total of 13 years. The scheme involved purchasing vans and lorries in the UK with criminal proceeds, selling them in Ukraine to meet wartime demand, and converting the earnings into cryptocurrency. This illicit enterprise saw over £6 million ($7.7 million) laundered, with the operation linked to an existing police operation involving a convicted Russian national.
Exploiting Wartime Demand
Valeriy Popovych, 52, of Sunbury-on-Thames, operated Sprint Commercial Ltd., an export business that acquired vehicles from legitimate UK traders and sold them in Ukraine. His wife, Oksana Popovych, 42, was also employed by the company. The couple utilized criminal cash to fund these purchases, capitalizing on Ukraine’s urgent need for vehicles amid the conflict with Russia. The proceeds from these sales were then deposited in Ukraine and converted into cryptocurrency, taking advantage of the region’s lax cryptocurrency regulations to maximize profits.
Vitaliy Lutsak, 43, of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, acted as the money coordinator for the operation. He directed the Popovyches to collect criminal cash from various ‘customers’ across the UK. Investigations revealed that more than $14 million in cryptocurrency had passed through Lutsak’s digital wallets.
A portion of the laundered funds was traced to Semen Kuksov, a Russian national convicted in October 2023 under the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Operation Destabilise, which targeted international money laundering networks. Kuksov was sentenced to five years and seven months’ imprisonment in February 2024.
Arrests and Sentencing
Acting on intelligence, Metropolitan Police officers intercepted a vehicle in Twickenham on June 28, 2023, with Valeriy Popovych as a passenger. A search uncovered over £60,000 in cash, leading to his immediate arrest and subsequent searches at his Feltham residence yielded an additional £130,000 in cash, along with laptops and mobile devices.
Further investigations connected Oksana Popovych and Lutsak to the operation; both were arrested in May 2024. All three were found guilty last year of transferring criminal property and operating an unregistered money service business, and on April 7, Valeriy Popovych and Lutsak were each sentenced to six years and six months’ imprisonment.
Detective Constable Harry Davies of the Metropolitan Police, who led the investigation noted in a press release that the police investigation had been “thorough and complex,” thanks in part to Popovych presenting himself as a “hardworking, legitimate tradesman [who] used his reputation within the second-hand lorry market to clean criminal cash. He also callously saw the conflict in Ukraine as a lucrative business opportunity.”
Oksana Popovych is scheduled for sentencing on May 30.
