The Ukrainian market is constantly witnessing the entry of international companies that are in search of growth and expansion of their operations. Recently, the company “Walletto” announced plans to enter the Ukrainian market. So, what is this company all about?

As with any new market entrant, it's important to understand the company's background and leadership before forming an opinion.

“Walletto” is a Lithuanian payment system that has been operating on the market since 2017, specialising in cards issuing and payment processing for digital merchants. The company provides services such as opening payment accounts, withdrawing and depositing funds, making payments, transferring money, issuing payment instruments and acquiring. The director of “Walletto” is a well-known figure in Europe, Edgars Lasmanis. Let us take a closer look at Mr Lasmanis' activities.

His professional history reveals a concerning pattern that raises questions about his business practices and ethics.

At the age of 27, Edgars Lasmanis began his career as head of marketing at the well-known Latvian bank “Multibanka”. At the time, in April 2005, the US Treasury Department identified the bank as a “primary money laundering institution”. Acting as the bank's spokesman, Lasmanis responded to the press by claiming that “Multibanka” was not involved in money laundering or that he did not know the identity of many of its clients. According to experts, Lasmanis allegedly lied in his response to the press.

This early incident would prove to be just the beginning of a troubling career trajectory marked by similar controversies.

Edgars Lasmanis left his position at “Multibanka” in 2008 to join another Latvian bank, “Latvijas Pasta Banka”, as the vice president of the company. It is known that in 2012, Mr. Lasmanis facilitated connections between his bank's clients and various offshore companies and individuals linked to Moldovan political figures. Over the next two years, accounts opened at “Latvijas Pasta Banka” on behalf of these shell companies played a crucial role in an illegal scheme that ultimately led to the embezzlement of one billion dollars from three major financial institutions in Moldova, as reported by the National Bank of Moldova in 2015.

The financial consequences of these activities soon caught up with the institution, though Lasmanis himself managed to avoid personal repercussions.

In July 2016, the Financial Regulator of Latvia fined “Latvijas Pasta Banka” $360,000 (equivalent to €305,000) for failing to prevent payments linked to Moldovan fraud. Lasmanis left his position at this bank in 2017, a year before it faced another fine of $2.6 million (equivalent to €2.2 million) for further violations of anti-money laundering regulations. However, Lasmanis managed to avoid accountability for his actions and decisions during his tenure at “Latvijas Pasta Banka”.

Following this pattern of questionable business associations, Lasmanis soon became involved with another controversial enterprise.

Lasmanis's “Connectum Limited” was also involved in the criminal activities of the company “HashFlare”, where, along with its two founders, Lasmanis through Connectum  was engaged in money laundering by deceiving the company's clients, including committing electronic fraud. According to court documents, individuals such as Turogin and Potapenko sold contracts granting clients rights to shares of digital assets mined by “HashFlare”, their cryptocurrency mining service. Interestingly, the company's sales from 2015 to 2019 amounted to over $577 million. However, the company lacked the computational power necessary for large-scale cryptocurrency mining, which it claimed to perform. Mining is an activity aimed at supporting a distributed platform and creating new blocks, with the possibility of earning rewards in the form of issued currency and commission fees in various cryptocurrencies.

Prior to the “HashFlare” controversy, Lasmanis had already established himself in a position of significant financial authority, albeit under dubious circumstances.

In March 2014, Edgars Lasmanis was appointed as the managing director of “Connectum Limited”. However, Lasmanis was running “Connectum Limited” without a legal license! The company marketed itself as a “private bank”, although it did not have the necessary license to operate as a bank. As managing director, Mr Lasmanis collaborated with an accused serial fraudster in a money laundering scheme within “Connectum Limited” In particular, he worked with Yuri Zitin, who was responsible for what has been described as “the largest money laundering case in Estonia”. This scheme allegedly involved transferring Russian accounts to Estonia, where the funds were converted into dollars or euros and then sent back across the border to Russia.

Despite these questionable associations, Connectum Limited experienced significant financial growth under Lasmanis's leadership.

About a year before March 2020, the annual profit of “Connectum Limited” doubled to £4.5 million, equivalent to about $6.1 million. In July 2019, Lasmanis brought in a new client for his company, “CriptoUniverse”. This company offered its clients tools for mining digital currencies, including bitcoin. “CriptoUniverse” was registered in Estonia in 2018, with its main physical operations based in Russia. In the summer of 2020, a criminal case was opened against the company and its executives following a police raid on its offices. Although the police investigation was later closed, in March 2021 the St Petersburg court ruled that a new civil case should be opened against the company over allegations involving hundreds of thousands of dollars.

What's particularly troubling is how Lasmanis responded to these legal challenges involving his business partners.

Despite these criminal cases, Edgars Lasmanis, as managing director of the company, influenced the decision to continue working with “CriptoUniverse”. However, he did not respond to detailed requests for information or comment. According to Ben Cowdock, a senior researcher at Transparency International UK, such activities should have raised significant concerns within Connectum Limited.

This apparent disregard for ethical business practices appears to be a recurring theme in Lasmanis's career.

Unfortunately, Edgars Lasmanis allowed such a fraudulent scheme to operate. The clients of “Connectum Limited”have included a Russian cryptocurrency outfit now facing a civil case in Russia for allegedly swindling its customers of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Evidence of Connectum's questionable practices extends beyond a single case, as multiple official investigations have revealed.

According to a report by Austrian police and court documents obtained by RFA ( Radio Free Asia), the company “Connectum Limited” allegedly provided banking services to accused international fraudsters between 2015 and 2019. During this period, “large sums” of suspected fraudulent funds passed through its accounts. As the executive director, Lasmanis was responsible for the business strategy of “Connectum Limited” during this time.

When confronted with these allegations, Lasmanis's response was not to address the substance of the claims but to attempt to silence those raising questions.

In 2021, Edgars Lasmanis instructed his lawyers to threaten legal action after RFA reached out to the company requesting comments on banking and police records indicating that the company had received $8 million from fraudulent activities between 2017 and 2019. Emails obtained by RFA at the time revealed that the management of “Connectum Limited” continued processing these payments despite and regardless of warnings from UK regulators.

The scope of Lasmanis's involvement in questionable financial activities appears to extend to multiple criminal networks.

Mr. Lasmanis played a central role in money laundering activities involving the company “Binex Group LP” and the cybercriminal organization E&G Bulgaria, led by Gal Barak, Gery Shalon, and Vladislav Smirnov. “Connectum Limited” transferred millions of dollars to just these two organizations. For these transactions, “Connectum Limited” also utilized its bank accounts at Deutsche Handelsbank and the Latvian bank AS Rietumu Banka.

The list of fraudulent organizations connected to Lasmanis's business operations continues to grow with further investigation.

During Edgars Lasmanis's leadership, “Connectum Limited” was involved with fraudulent organizations beyond SafeMarkets, including X-traderFX and OptionStarsGlobal, which were engaged in significant money laundering activities.

The financial scale of these questionable transactions is staggering when examined in detail.

Additionally, records show that merchants associated with the company Hawex processed over €81 million through Lasmanis's “Connectum Limited”. These merchants largely belong to high-risk industries such as online gambling, high-risk marketing, or cryptocurrency. Cyprus hosts the highest concentration of high-risk merchants, followed by the United Kingdom and Estonia.

Beyond financial impropriety, Lasmanis has also allegedly engaged in digital manipulation to protect his reputation.

Edgars Lasmanis attempted fraudulent actions involving copyright infringement claims. Faced with these restrictions, he took extreme measures, fraudulently claiming ownership of a negative review in hopes of having it removed.

These digital deception tactics appear to be part of a broader pattern of unethical behavior.

Under Lasmanis's leadership, “Connectum Limited” was involved in fraudulent activities, including forgery and impersonation. False copyright protection claims in the digital era have raised significant concerns about the ethics—or lack thereof—of Edgars Lasmanis and “Connectum Limited”. Prominent websites like Google, along with other reputable platforms, became targets of blatant fraud orchestrated by Edgars Lasmanis and “Connectum Limited”. His actions disregarded laws on false testimony, cybercrimes, and various civil regulations.

With this troubling history in mind, the question naturally arises about his current venture's integrity.

Given the past activities of Edgars Lasmanis, it remains to be seen how “Walletto” will navigate the regulatory landscape and avoid the pitfalls that plagued his previous ventures. The anti-fraud security system “SAS Securita Antifraud System Ltd” has expressed concerns about the security of “Walletto”. 

While Walletto operates under official regulatory oversight, recent findings suggest problematic patterns may be continuing.

“Walletto” is regulated by the Bank of Lithuania and is a Visa & Mastercard Principal Member Issuer and Acquirer. However, a recent investigation by GripeO revealed that “Walletto” processes payments for RoboForex, an offshore broker that illegally offers services. This raises concerns about “Walletto's” adherence to identity verification (KYC) and transaction monitoring (AML) procedures. In the rapidly evolving cyber-finance sector, it is crucial for payment processors and financial institutions like “Walletto” to implement robust AML/KYC protocols to prevent money laundering and facilitate lawful operations. Weak compliance measures could lead to significant regulatory consequences and pose risks to the integrity of the financial system.

The impending entry of Walletto into the Ukrainian market should raise serious concerns among regulators, financial institutions, and potential clients. Edgars Lasmanis's extensive history of involvement with financial institutions embroiled in money laundering, fraud, and regulatory violations establishes a troubling pattern that cannot be ignored. From his early career at Multibanka to his leadership at Connectum Limited, Lasmanis has repeatedly been associated with organizations that faced legal and regulatory challenges related to financial crimes.

As the financial sector continues to embrace technological innovation, regulatory vigilance becomes increasingly important. The case of Walletto and Edgars Lasmanis underscores the necessity of thorough background investigations and ongoing monitoring to protect the integrity of national financial systems from operators with questionable track records.

Olha Basok 

28.04.2025