WEX directors Sidetan Khvanta and Dmitriy Kosarev risk prison over concealment of assets managed by Pavel Kuznetsov

At a court hearing in the civil case brought by WEX exchange clients against WEX, Ms. Sidetan Khvanta was present.

She is listed as a second (nominal) director of WEX alongside Dmitriy Kosarev, described as a nominee of Malofeev and associated with Dmitriy Skuratov, director of Tsargrad, as well as company secretary Mr. Yeow Lih Ren. The court inquired about WEX assets, but no details were provided. During cross-examination, Ms. Khvanta stated that she and the company secretary had been advised by Pavel Kuznetsov, director of Singapore-based RegUniverse Pte Ltd, who instructed them not to disclose information.

Failure to comply with a court order in Singapore carries a penalty of up to six months’ imprisonment, which she faced. However, the plaintiffs showed leniency and did not insist on jail time, since they had previously obtained a document authorizing Pravdin to independently dispose of WEX funds. Kuznetsov had submitted an affidavit supporting WEX a year earlier, suggesting he actively works with nominal personnel to conceal misappropriation of funds and may be of interest to investigators if WEX cannot repay clients. Alongside him, Andrey Zelenin from Lidings is also mentioned as likely directly involved in the misappropriation together with Pravdin and Kosarev.

Parallel to the Singapore proceedings, the Supreme Court of Russia on September 30, 2025 overturned a civil court decision requiring Aleksey Bilyuchenko to pay WEX 18 billion rubles in compensation for misappropriation. The reason was an agreement concluded by Dmitriy Khavchenko at a hearing on September 6, 2023, when the company was effectively re-registered to Pravdin without Khavchenko’s knowledge (replacement of nominees).

However, Khavchenko remained WEX’s representative in court and, apparently to undermine Pravdin and Skuratov, agreed to the minimum possible amount of damage suffered by WEX — 3.1 billion rubles. This amount is clearly understated as of 2023. The damage was calculated as of October 24, 2018 — notably a period when cryptocurrency prices were at a low — and this specific date was chosen by investigators. Khavchenko, who had no understanding of cryptocurrencies or the WEX exchange, was willing to accept any sum that might be transferred to the account number he had written on a piece of paper and attempted to submit to the court that day.

Although under Article 1102 of the Civil Code no one may benefit from their own wrongdoing, even with a signed but clearly exploitative agreement with Khavchenko it would still be possible to pursue recovery of illicit profits, not to mention that there had been three years to challenge the deal. Instead, the resources of WEX’s hired legal firms were concentrated on the Singapore process, apparently to prevent any payouts whatsoever.