Hacker News Reader

Comment by hkpack | Hacker News Reader

> Ukraine is well known money laundering machine.

Can you provide any sources for this?

Ukraine had very strict banking rules for at least a decade. It had much more sense to launder through Cyprus for example or other EU countries like Latvia (when it was still possible) or Hungary if you’re politically connected.

View on HN

> Can you provide any sources for this?

Thats common knowledge for everyone even tangentially related to finance industry and likely for anyone who ever did international business with cross border payments . Not sure what kind of "sources" you expect to see here.

> Ukraine had very strict banking rules for at least a decade

Perhaps for it's own populace, but not for it's rulers and those who they work with.

Do you mean some Russians used Ukraine as a money laundering middleman, specifically through corruption of politicians and elites in the system there? Because it sounds like it. Before the "conflict" (invasion) happened.

I'll leave your imagination to judge who used ukraine as money laundering machine. To have some supplementary data for that, we can look where the money entering ukraine come from for say last 5 years. You can easily find how much was coming from russia and compare it with flow from say EU. You should be capable of drawing your own conclusions after.

You can imagine all sorts of things, including the ones which are not true.

The fact is that there are no proofs that any money donated by EU, US or other donors for Ukraine was misused.

I’ll leave your imagination to judge why the most powerful propaganda machine in the world tries to claim otherwise to stop such aid.

Okay, so basically you’ve read some “anonymous sources” and decided they are true.

Because for me, as a person who did international business from Ukraine it makes absolutely zero sense to launder through Ukraine as it is:

1) no part of any union, so you will be unable to spend or move money outside.

2) it has extreme bank regulation, and you cannot just send money outside without cause. Receiving and sending money for fake “services” will not work (compared to a lot of other places I know)

3) it has a lot of independent anti-corruption institutions. You can be sure that any government official fears the consequences of doing something illegal.

4) it is in a state of war and any suspicious money operation will trigger investigation from SBU as well, since Russia tries to pay for its agents.

If there is corruption and money laundering happening, it is well outside of any path available for regular people.

It’s advisable not to judge within your limited worldview. Not everyone “reads” mainstream media, some people have real world experience.

Your arguments regarding why Ukraine can’t be used for money laundering are laughable and just show you are now aware how certain things in financial world work. That’s totally fine - but it gets distorted when some extended judgements are made based on very limited worldview.

So enrich my and other peoples world view - this is what this forum is about. Instead of saying "I'll leave it to your imagination", please provide any substance of your claims - anything we can talk about.

Since you didn't I have to guess, what you are talking about.

It not possible to "enrich" view of someone who prefers to live in a bubble of own delusions. Neither I am gonna try that.

What about other users that might be interested in the topic, apart from OP?

Sapienti Sat.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com