FCA-Regulated Fondy Under Scrutiny: Cash-Burning UK EMI, Insolvent Austrian Parent, and Ukraine Risk Flags Around Vahorovska!

Payment Contributor
Sat, 28 Mar 2026 14:40:02 +0000
Compliance, FCA, ticker, Ukraine, AML risk, Austria insolvency, FCA EMI, Fondy, Fondy Ltd, Mastercard, merchant acquiring, NBU, Ronny Pecik, Ukraine payments, V&A Holding, Valeriia Vahorovska, Visa

The Ukrainian fintech group Fondy raises a difficult compliance question. In the UK, Fondy Ltd is an FCA-authorised EMI with minimal reported turnover and repeated losses. In Austria, its ultimate parent V & A Holding GmbH entered insolvency in Feb 2026. Valeriia Vahorovska and Ronny Pecik are its shareholders. In Ukraine, the NBU cancelled the participation of LLC FC “Alliance”, operating under the Fondy brand, in Visa and Mastercard payment systems after receiving documented information indicating national-security risks.

The Ukrainian fintech group Fondy raises a difficult compliance question. In the UK, Fondy Ltd is an FCA-authorised EMI with minimal reported turnover and repeated losses. In Austria, its ultimate parent V & A Holding GmbH entered insolvency in February 2026 and lists Valeriia Vahorovska and Ronny Pecik as shareholders. In Ukraine, the National Bank (NBU) cancelled the participation of LLC FC “Alliance”, operating under the Fondy brand, in Visa and Mastercard payment systems after receiving documented information indicating national-security risks. The public record does not prove a laundering scheme. It does, however, present a multi-jurisdictional structure that merits serious regulatory and forensic scrutiny.

Key Findings

Weak UK operating profile: Fondy Ltd reported only £72,927 turnover in 2024 against a £645,415 annual loss, while year-end cash fell to £71,617. Its directors explicitly relied on continued support from V&A Holding GmbH in the going-concern note.

Repeated recapitalisation: Companies House and the audited accounts show continuing share-capital increases, with called-up capital rising to £3,997,742 at 31 December 2024 and to £4,323,445 by 31 December 2025.

Austrian parent insolvent: Austrian insolvency records show V & A Holding GmbH, Börseplatz 4, Vienna, entered into insolvency procedures on 16 February 2026. AKV identifies Valeriia Vahorovska as managing director and shareholder, and Ronny Pecik as shareholder.

Official Ukraine action: The NBU said it cancelled the registration of LLC FC “Alliance” as an indirect participant in Visa and Mastercard after receiving documented information from law-enforcement and a specialised state body indicating risks of threats to Ukraine’s national security. The NBU also said the Fondy trademark is owned by V&A Holding GmbH and that Vahorovska is a 95% participant and director of that Austrian company.

Pecik link adds geopolitical sensitivity: A reviewed October 2015 intelligence-style report describes Pecik as having ties to Russian and Ukrainian oligarch interests, including the Klyuev brothers, Deripaska and Vekselberg, and says some related Austrian vehicles were operated from addresses linked to him. Those claims should be treated as attributed intelligence/reporting, not as proven fact in this article.

UK Layer: Fondy Ltd Looks Funding-Dependent, Not Revenue-Driven

Fondy Ltd’s 2024 audited accounts show a company that is still not funding itself commercially. Turnover fell from £77,951 in 2023 to £72,927 in 2024. Cost of sales exceeded turnover, producing a gross loss of £98,474. Administrative expenses were £754,264, and the company ended the year with a loss of £645,415. Cash at bank fell to £71,617, while net cash used in operations was £713,191.

The balance sheet also shows heavy intra-group dependence. Of £847,810 debtors, £842,719 was owed by group undertakings. The notes identify Fondy Group Limited as the immediate parent and V&A Holding GmbH as the ultimate parent. The directors’ going-concern note explicitly relies on continued support from V&A Holding GmbH.

Share capital rose to GBP 3,997,742 after GBP 1.55m of new equity in 2023–2024, but cash declined to GBP 71,617; the main asset is GBP 842,719 “amounts owed by group undertakings”, primarily V&A Holding GmbH.

Companies House and Fondy’s own disclosures show Valeriia Vahorovska as sole director and person with significant control, while FinTelegram’s information places her residence in Vienna. The UK entity therefore appears as a capital‑funded regulatory wrapper, economically dependent on a foreign holding and intra‑group flows rather than genuine UK‑market revenues.

Austrian Layer: V&A Insolvency and the Pecik Shareholder Link

The Austrian parent is no longer a theoretical support pillar. Both KSV1870 and AKV report that V & A Holding GmbH, headquartered at Börseplatz 4, 1010 Vienna, entered insolvency proceedings in February 2026. AKV identifies the company as a financial-services business and names Valeriia Vahorovska as managing director and shareholder and Ronny Pecik as shareholder.

That matters because Fondy Ltd’s UK going-concern case depends on support from this Austrian entity. It also sharpens the importance of the shareholder base and the Vienna address itself. The user’s point that Börseplatz 4 is associated with the same Vienna business milieu around Pecik and Zapotocky is directionally relevant, but based on the currently cited public sources, the article should state only what can be clearly supported: Pecik is a recorded V&A shareholder, and the insolvent V&A entity is based at Börseplatz 4.

Ukraine Layer: Official National-Security Risk Action

The strongest Ukraine point is the official one. On 29 April 2024, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) announced that it had cancelled the registration of LLC FC “Alliance” as an indirect participant in Visa and Mastercard payment systems. The NBU said it took this step after receiving documented information from law-enforcement and a specialised state body that the company’s activity contained risks of threats to Ukraine’s national security. It also stated that the company operated under the Fondy brand and that the trademark owner was V&A Holding GmbH, in which Valeriia Vahorovska was a 95% participant and director.

Ukrainian reporting cites NBU and SBU sources as alleging that:

80–90% of Fondy’s transactions were miscoded, disguising real merchant activity, under‑reporting volumes and facilitating tax evasion.

Fondy’s technology and affiliates supported the “Unified Wallet W1”, which operated on occupied territories and allegedly routed payments from Ukraine to occupied Donetsk and onward to Russia.

Vahorovska’s brother Bondarenko ran related payment activity in Russia, paying taxes there, while leasing software from the Ukrainian Fondy entity.

These findings mirror international typologies of transaction laundering and sanctions‑sensitive cross‑border value transfer and are directly relevant to assessing the residual risk in the Fondy group and its successor structures.

Ukrainian media and security sources connect Vahorovska to: (i) husband Volodymyr Vahorovskyi, whose associates created the W1 wallet used on occupied territories, and (ii) brother Aleksei Bondarenko, who allegedly ran payment business in Russia and rented software from Fondy while paying taxes there.

Note: The official NBU notice does not itself state the percentages of alleged miscoding, nor does it expressly set out the more detailed Russia/DNR allegations seen in Ukrainian media.

Ireland–Georgia layer: TBC‑anchored Restructuring of Fondy

Anticipating sanctions and deregistration, Vahorovska attempted to sell the Ukrainian Fondy business to TBC Bank Group PLC, Georgia’s largest bank, via TBC International Holdings in London. The Ukrainian Antimonopoly Committee approved the deal on 25 April 2024, but on 26 April the NBU cancelled Fondy’s registration, effectively destroying the asset and leading TBC to withdraw its application to buy 85% of the company.

However, it appears as if the TBC transaction somehow might have gone through as an asset deal. We found a fourth, structurally important layer of the Fondy ecosystem in Ireland. Fondy’s European technology and payment operations were being partially re‑platformed into an Irish structure co‑owned with TBC.

Irish filings show Fondy IT Dev and Research Limited (Irish Co. 623874) as a Fondy‑branded development company whose largest shareholder is Fondy Payments Limited (Irish Co. 642231).

Companies House filings show that Fondy IT Dev and Research Limited was controlled by Valeriia Vahorovska in 2024.

SoloCheck and related data identify Fondy Payments Limited as having TBC INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS LIMITED (UK) as its largest shareholder, while Ukrainian/English‑language media report that the Georgian TBC Bank Group obtained Antimonopoly Committee approval in April 2024 to acquire control over “Fondy Payments Ltd” and the Ukrainian Fondy entity FC Elains (ООО ФК «Элайенс»).

Companies House records link TBC International Holdings Limited (15122698) to Georgian banker Vakhtang Butskhrikidze (LinkedIn), CEO of the TBC Group, with TBC BANK GROUP PLC listed as founder, confirming that Fondy’s Irish payments vehicle is structurally embedded in the TBC group.

From a compliance perspective, this Ireland–Georgia leg means that Fondy’s core technology and European client‑facing payment capabilities have been partly shifted into an Irish platform backed by a listed Georgian banking group, while:

The Ukrainian Fondy licence has been revoked on national‑security and miscoding grounds.

The Austrian ultimate parent V&A Holding GmbH (historical controller of Fondy alongside Ronny Pecik and Valeriia Vahorovska) is insolvent.

The UK EMI Fondy Ltd remains chronically loss‑making and dependent on capital from V&A.

This configuration raises significant questions:

To what extent did the Irish–TBC structure effectively migrate “clean” parts of the Fondy business (technology, selected clients, EU market access) into a fresh vehicle, leaving high‑risk historic flows and liabilities behind in the Ukrainian, Austrian and UK legacy entities?

Whether TBC’s acquisition process adequately accounted for NBU and security‑service concerns regarding Fondy’s past miscoding, possible links to Russian/“DNR” payment infrastructures, and its role in high‑risk broker/gambling payments.

Accordingly, any counterparty dealing with Fondy Payments Limited (Ireland), Fondy IT Dev and Research Limited, or TBC‑associated Fondy infrastructure should treat the Ireland–Georgia layer as an integrated part of the Fondy risk complex and apply enhanced due diligence, including historic‑relationship mapping back to Ukrainian Fondy, V&A Holding GmbH, and Fondy Ltd (UK).

The Pecik Dimension: Why It Raises the Temperature

Ronny Pecik’s presence in V&A changes the texture of the Austrian link. Pecik is an Austrian businessman with unusually strong Austria–Ukraine–Russia connections, including relationships with the Klyuev brothers, references to Viktor Vekselberg, Oleg Deripaska, Dmytro Firtash, and others, and assertions that Austrian corporate infrastructure linked to Pecik intersected with politically exposed Ukrainian and Russian-linked networks. Again, these are claims in a reviewed report, not findings independently proven here. But they are relevant context when assessing why a Fondy/V&A structure involving Pecik deserves enhanced scrutiny.

Summary Table

Layer | Entity / Person | Jurisdiction | Verified role | Risk relevance
UK EMI | Fondy Ltd | United Kingdom | FCA-authorised EMI; active company; loss-making and funding-dependent | Weak economic substance profile
Austrian parent | V & A Holding GmbH | Austria | Ultimate parent in Fondy accounts; insolvent from 16 Feb 2026 | Parent-support and prudential concern

Ireland-Georgia-UK

Fondy IT Dev and Research Limited
Fondy Payments Limited
TBC International Holdings Limited

Ireland
UK
Georgia

Fondy IT Dev and Research was part of the Fondy group until at least Dec 2024

Possible asset deal between Fondy and Georgian TBC group

Key executive | Valeriia Vahorovska | UK / Austria / Ukraine nexus | Director of Fondy Ltd; shareholder/MD of V&A per Austrian insolvency source | Central control figure
Shareholder | Ronny Pecik | Austria | Shareholder of insolvent V&A per AKV | Raises geopolitical and integrity questions
Ukraine operating brand | LLC FC “Alliance” / Fondy | Ukraine | Fondy-branded entity removed from Visa/Mastercard indirect participation by NBU | Official national-security-risk action

Conclusion

The cleaner and stronger compliance case is this: Fondy is not being accused here of proven money laundering on the current public record. But the structure around it is deeply problematic. The UK EMI shows negligible turnover and persistent losses; the Austrian parent that underpins its going-concern case is insolvent; the Ukrainian Fondy-branded entity was removed from Visa and Mastercard participation on national-security-risk grounds; and the Austrian shareholder picture includes Ronny Pecik, whose broader Eastern-European and oligarch-linked associations have long attracted scrutiny. That combination is more than enough to justify closer attention from regulators, counterparties, and investigative journalists.

Whistleblower Call
FinTelegram invites insiders, former employees, auditors, counterparties, compliance staff, and technical contractors with information about Fondy Ltd, V & A Holding GmbH, Valeriia Vahorovska, Ronny Pecik, intercompany funding, merchant onboarding, Ukraine payment flows, or related Austrian and Ukrainian structures to contact Whistle42 securely. We are especially interested in source-of-funds evidence for capital increases, intercompany-transfer records, software-licensing arrangements, and documents explaining the operational relationship between the UK EMI, the Austrian parent, and the former Ukrainian Fondy-branded entity.