Valeriy Popovych, 52, of The Avenue, Sudbury‐on‐Thames and Vitaliy Lutsak, 43, of Shortmead Drive, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, were sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on April 7.
A third, Oksana Popovych, 42, of The Avenue, Sudbury‐on‐Thames is due to be sentenced on May 30 at Wood Green Crown Court.
The group took criminals’ money to purchase vans and lorries in the UK and sell them to Ukraine, converting the earnings into cryptocurrency.
Detective Constable Harry Davies from the Metropolitan Police led the investigation.
He said: “Mr Popovych presented himself as a hardworking, legitimate tradesman and 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.”
The racket enabled Valeriy and Oksana Popovych to purchase a second house in South West London for just under £1 million.
Valeriy Popovych ran an export business, Sprint Commercial Ltd, purchasing vehicles in the UK from legitimate traders and selling them in Ukraine.
His wife, Valeriy Popovych, was also employed by the business.
Once he had purchased the goods with criminal cash, the money was deposited in Ukraine and converted to cryptocurrency.
Lutsak acted as the money co-ordinator and would send the Popovychs to collect criminal cash from ‘customers’ in the UK.
During the investigation officers found more than $14 million in cryptocurrency had passed through his cyrptowallets stored on his computer.
A part of the laundered cash was controlled by a Russian National called Semen Kuksov, who was convicted on October 27, 2023, at Southwark Crown Court.
Kuksov was sentenced to five years and seven months’ imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court on February 1, 2024.
On Wednesday, June 28, 2023, police stopped a vehicle in Twickenham in which Valeiry Popovych was the passenger.
Following a search of the vehicle, Met officers found more than £60,000 in cash and arrested him at the scene.
During a further search at his address on Gloucester Road, Feltham, officers recovered £130,000 in cash. This was seized, alongside a laptop and mobile devices.
Following Popovych’s arrest, extensive investigations by the Economic Crime Unit discovered the link with Oksana and Lutsak, who were arrested at their homes on May 15, 2024.
Lutsak was charged on the same day.
Valeriy and Oksana Popvych were charged on June 14, 2024.
They were all found guilty by the jury on March 5, 2025 at Wood Green Crown Court.
A variety of complex evidence was obtained by officers, including chats, money transactions, CCTV, cryptocurrency wallets and call logs.
Messages outlined key times in which Valeriy and Popovych visited addresses to collect cash.
The most crucial element was an Excel spreadsheet, named ‘V Enf Acc’. This document proved the group laundered over £6 million between August 2022 and June 2023.
Valeriy Popovych and Vitaliy Lutsak were both sentenced to six years and six months’ imprisonment.
They were all found guilty of transferring criminal property over the value of £6 million under Section 327 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and running an unregistered money service business under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017.
Negeen Momtahen, Specialist Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Together, these defendants used an export business as a front to launder millions of pounds of criminal cash across borders.
“They attempted to conceal the source of this illicit money by using secret token exchanges and cryptocurrency.
“Money laundering is not a victimless crime – it is the financial lifeline which enables criminals to profit from their illegal activities.
“Last year we convicted other key members of this same money laundering network.
“I hope this latest prosecution demonstrates our ongoing determination to dismantling these criminal operations and bringing all involved to justice.
“We will be pursuing confiscation proceedings against the defendants to remove any available criminal benefits gained from this enterprise.”
