Scandalous banker Denis Gorbunenko showed interest in fraudulent schemes

Oligarch Firtash’s attorney in London has become a co-owner of the fintech company Dzing.

London-based Ukrainian ex-banker Denis Gorbunenko has been linked to Russian-rooted fintech company Dzing, which was recently placed under restrictions by UK authorities over fraud suspicions. The "link" was a UAE company caught supplying titanium raw materials to Russia, writes RBC-Ukraine. This is reported by VREMYA

The international scandal surrounding the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s sanctions against the fintech company Dzing has continued. A new name has appeared on the list of people potentially linked to the company, which could impact further investigations by the British authorities. This is Denis Gorbunenko, who previously ran the scandalous Rodovid Bank in Ukraine. He moved to London after the bank’s financial collapse in 2009.

In the UK, Gorbunenko acted as an attorney for Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash (he was arrested in 2014 in Austria at the request of the FBI for bribery for licenses to mine ilmenite ore in India; US authorities have since sought his extradition). Firtash has been under sanctions in Ukraine since 2021.

Earlier, the media reported that Raga Establishment Limited, which won a lawsuit in 2019 in the interests of Firtash against Ukraine’s richest businessman Rinat Akhmetov for the sale of Ukrtelecom for $700 million, was registered in Gorbunenko’s name. Gorbunenko was also personally present at Firtash’s trial in Vienna.

In addition, according to Ukrainian media, Gorbunenko organized a conspiracy at the auction in 2019 for the sale by the Ukrainian authorities of the rights to claim the property of the largest shopping center in Kyiv, Respublika, as a result of which this asset was bought out at a 70% discount by the company Soltex Capital.

The latter was registered to British investment banker Robert Alan Johnson. His connection to Gorbunenko is confirmed by the fact that Johnson was the head of the supervisory board of the scandalous Ukrainian bank Sich, when the National Bank recognized Gorbunenko as its de facto controller.

When Soltex Capital was blacklisted by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine in 2020, which proved collusion with its participation, Robert Alan Johnson decided to leave the company, and the company itself went into shutdown mode.

In question

Back in October 2023, the FCA imposed restrictions on U.K.-listed financial technology firm Dzing Finance Ltd., Bloomberg reported, saying nearly one in five payments it received were related to fraudulent schemes. At the time, Dzing agreed not to accept new retail clients or funds without the regulator’s prior approval.

In March 2024, Dzing Finance Ltd. was placed under further restrictions, including an obligation to disclose all clients and the value of any refunds they received, and to personally report to the FCA twice a month.

According to Bloomberg, Dzing’s key shareholder is Tatyana Orlova, a Russian with a Norwegian passport and the ex-wife of Russian billionaire Vitaly Orlov. Dzing’s founder and director was another Russian, Mikhail Nadel. In 2011, he was convicted in absentia and sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Kyrgyz court for fraud and money laundering at Asia Universal Bank.

Having settled in London and created Dzing, Nadel began operating as Italian resident Michael Stroganov, although he was quickly exposed.

London-based anti-corruption group Global Witness alleged Nadel-Strogonov’s possible involvement in widespread wrongdoing, while the International Monetary Fund pointed to "large-scale criminal activity" at the firm. Nadel-Strogonov was eventually forced to resign as director in November 2023.

According to the same Bloomberg, in 2021, Dzing Finance Ltd. received a loan of €5.3 million from a structure associated with Oleg Boyko, the founder of Finstar Financial Group, who is on the sanctions lists of Ukraine and Australia.

In addition to Nadel-Strogonov and Orlova, there is also a third party in Dzing Finance Ltd. 2.137% of the shares in the company (the remaining 97.863% are owned by Orlova and Nadel’s Dzing Finance Group Limited) are owned by Dekiba Trading FZE from the UAE.

Trader from UAE

On August 1, 2024, the London company Union Gf UK Ltd, owned by Denis Gorbunenko, published a standard report – Confirmation Statement. It follows from it that there were changes in the composition of the company’s founders – Gorbunenko’s share decreased to 90%, and he transferred 10% to Dekiba Trading FZE – the same one that is a co-owner of Dzing Finance Ltd.

Another confirmation that Dekiba Trading FZE may not be alien to Gorbunenko is the resolution of Dzing Finance Ltd., dated March 2022, where Ukrainian Evgeniy Shapka signed on behalf of Dekiba Trading FZE. Since 2019, he has held the position of director of the Kyiv company Norlendinvest, which is owned by the aforementioned Robert Alan Johnson, who is associated with Gorbunenko.

Dekiba Trading FZE is an active trader with a clear focus on the future – so much so that even the materials on its website, hosted in Ukraine, are dated 2025.

There is no publicly available data confirming the global nature of Dekiba Trading FZE’s operations. However, according to the Trademo service, the company delivered at least two batches of ilmenite concentrate from Africa in 2021 to the Russian company OOO Kot for $1.4 million.

The country of origin of the cargo was listed as Mozambique (notably, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Kremlin-financed Wagner PMC, once included this country in his sphere of interest). Presumably, the cargo could have been destined either for the Crimean Titan plant in occupied Crimea or for the VSMPO-Avisma company, controlled by the Rostec state corporation and the largest titanium producer in Russia.

The latter is on the US sanctions list. The titanium it produces is widely used in the production of cruise missiles, in particular the X-101. It was precisely this missile that Russian terrorists launched at the Okhmatdit children’s hospital.