The digital bank sportbank is actually “moving” towards closure due to the case that the DBI opened against them. The financial institution is accused of high treason, miscoding and tax evasion. However, the bank itself denies involvement in the allegations that appear in the investigation and considers this pressure on the business. Forbes writes about this.
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What is known about sportbank
< p>The sportbank neobank is owned by former Parimatch top manager Nikita Izmailov and partners. The brand is already more than six years old. The user base of the mobile application totals more than 600 thousand.
The project, even before the DBR accusations, had significant business problems, having actually lost a key partner – Taskombank Sergei Tigipko. Now the partnership is almost over – since the fall of 2023, sportbank has been looking for a new base financial institution. The partner was found, but the signing of the cooperation agreement fell through due to the situation with searches and arrests, which put an end to a possible partnership, says a written comment from the sportbank press service.
Accusation
The case of high treason, which became the reason for searches in the neobank, has been ongoing by the DBI since August 2023. Sportbank CEO Strizhko denies the project's involvement in the charges.
- In January, detectives from the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) came to the project office in search of evidence of sportbank’s cooperation with Russian businesses and the companies Parimatch, Buddy.bet and PariWin, which were evading taxes. In February, searches were carried out in the project office and the premises of its employees, the accounts of the companies (OO Divotek and ZN Network LLC) were arrested, said Mikhail Strizhko, CEO of the project.
According to representatives of sportbank, they were not informed of the grounds for granting permission to conduct searches, and the decision to conduct a search is the only document regarding the proceedings at the disposal of sportbank.
Sportbank Management is not suspected of treason or other illegal actions. The four persons indicated in the definition are not managers and/or employees of Sportbank, the bank noted.
It also added that the company employees did not receive suspicion and did not appear as suspects in decisions known to them.
Sportbank states that it does not cooperate with the gambling business.
Does the application work
The financial institution emphasized that the actions of the DBR do not affect users of the sportbank mobile application – it works as normal , users have full control over their funds deposited in bank accounts.