Hi everyone. I built a small company with my husband back in 2018 in Russia, a workshop that sells medieval armour worldwide (I'm EU citizen, he's Russian). Before 2022, we had been using direct ATM cash withdrawals or SWIFT transfers to get the funds from EU to RU. As the world split since Russia's attack on Ukraine, I had to come up with new ways how to transfer funds. We have 8 employees that are like family to us (noone agrees with what's happening and they even went to protest, if someone here cares about that) and to cover their wages, I need to transfer around 100K € a year to Russia.
I spent days studying and strolling around the Internet back in February how to do this and went for crypto exchanges while using EMIs such as PayPal (we need this one for accepting payments from all around the world), Wise, and Revolut. I use P2P trade, while making less transfers with higher sums, so I keep it low key. I got PayPal freeze check in June, they didn't ask much, it was probably triggered just by "unusual acitivity" (more funds in as I couldn't do SWIFT or ATM withdrawals any more) 4 months from Feb 2022. Got my Wise account, which I use for P2P, frozen 3 months later, covered that with my income documents from EU, but it was tougher than the PayPal check, so I decided to lower the money stream going through Wise and opened Revolut account. I managed to use it since this January when they asked me to verify the source of funds. As I cannot show them any documents from the Russian company and point out that the money actually goes this way (for obvious reasons that nobody wants to have anything with RU and my fear this would actually close my accounts), I sent in my EU payslips, as the total sum to proove was lower than my annual income. Long story short, after waiting 3 days without reply, my account was suspended without any explanation or possibility to dispute such solution. I decided to open an account at ZEN.com to continue sending money over with P2P and this is where it gets interesting: my registration was declined. When I asked the support, all they could told me was that it's because of the security reasons. Not sure if Revolut flagged me, I asked World Check to provide me with the information regarding the data they collected about me and I'm waiting for their reply.
I apparently made a mistake when I chose solely P2P trade instead of bying crypto from the platforms and not peers, and continuing selling to peers to get the money out on the other side, but that's what I read all over the Internet back then, how accounts got closed when dealing with direct crypto purchases or sending money from crypto.
My question is: is there another way, ideally a legal way, how to send funds to Russia? If Revolut really flagged me and all my EMIs get shut down one after another, I am basically left with no options. I really don't want to give up on my team just because of their nationality. I was also not born into a rich family, I've been working basically without days off to get where I am, and I really don't want to give up on this business. I know that noone cares, just hoping you guys here will understand, because you may know too well how hard and complex that can be.
Also if another account freeze comes on PayPal or Wise, there will be bigger sum to proove than what I can cover with my EU payslips. As I cannot use any Russian documents, I came up with an idea to have an agreement and be a mediator of the business (between the company and the customer, so the EMIs don't need to bother of being connected to RU directly). If my wage from such activities is lower than a particular limit in my country, I don't need to declare that. Does that make sense or is there a better solution? This is not about being unwilling to pay any taxes, it's just about making the business survive.
If anyone could give me advice, it would me much appreciated.
Thank you in advance and I wish you all successful 2023.
I spent days studying and strolling around the Internet back in February how to do this and went for crypto exchanges while using EMIs such as PayPal (we need this one for accepting payments from all around the world), Wise, and Revolut. I use P2P trade, while making less transfers with higher sums, so I keep it low key. I got PayPal freeze check in June, they didn't ask much, it was probably triggered just by "unusual acitivity" (more funds in as I couldn't do SWIFT or ATM withdrawals any more) 4 months from Feb 2022. Got my Wise account, which I use for P2P, frozen 3 months later, covered that with my income documents from EU, but it was tougher than the PayPal check, so I decided to lower the money stream going through Wise and opened Revolut account. I managed to use it since this January when they asked me to verify the source of funds. As I cannot show them any documents from the Russian company and point out that the money actually goes this way (for obvious reasons that nobody wants to have anything with RU and my fear this would actually close my accounts), I sent in my EU payslips, as the total sum to proove was lower than my annual income. Long story short, after waiting 3 days without reply, my account was suspended without any explanation or possibility to dispute such solution. I decided to open an account at ZEN.com to continue sending money over with P2P and this is where it gets interesting: my registration was declined. When I asked the support, all they could told me was that it's because of the security reasons. Not sure if Revolut flagged me, I asked World Check to provide me with the information regarding the data they collected about me and I'm waiting for their reply.
I apparently made a mistake when I chose solely P2P trade instead of bying crypto from the platforms and not peers, and continuing selling to peers to get the money out on the other side, but that's what I read all over the Internet back then, how accounts got closed when dealing with direct crypto purchases or sending money from crypto.
My question is: is there another way, ideally a legal way, how to send funds to Russia? If Revolut really flagged me and all my EMIs get shut down one after another, I am basically left with no options. I really don't want to give up on my team just because of their nationality. I was also not born into a rich family, I've been working basically without days off to get where I am, and I really don't want to give up on this business. I know that noone cares, just hoping you guys here will understand, because you may know too well how hard and complex that can be.
Also if another account freeze comes on PayPal or Wise, there will be bigger sum to proove than what I can cover with my EU payslips. As I cannot use any Russian documents, I came up with an idea to have an agreement and be a mediator of the business (between the company and the customer, so the EMIs don't need to bother of being connected to RU directly). If my wage from such activities is lower than a particular limit in my country, I don't need to declare that. Does that make sense or is there a better solution? This is not about being unwilling to pay any taxes, it's just about making the business survive.
If anyone could give me advice, it would me much appreciated.
Thank you in advance and I wish you all successful 2023.
