🕳️ Released Phantom Node 64: Armenian Banks — Ardshinbank & Unibank. Shadow Accounts. Financial Phantoms
- Foundation date
23 September 2025
This project is a philosophical and artistic study of the phenomenon of "phantom nodes" — invisible yet influential objects and subjects in the contemporary global system. The descriptions contained within this study are metaphorical and allegorical, aimed at uncovering systemic problems, regimes, and civilisational influences. They are not a journalistic investigation or legal accusations, but serve as an artistic interpretation of reality.
This creation is protected and cannot be used by third parties for the purpose of supporting, propagating, or legitimizing criminal regimes, terrorist states, and organizations operating in the shadows. The use of data or analysis results from this project, whether in part or in full, is expressly prohibited if the objective is to support or conceal their criminal activity.
The project may be freely used by individuals and organizations that combat evil, corruption, and aggression.
🕳️ Released Phantom Node 64: Armenian Banks — Ardshinbank & Unibank. Shadow Accounts. Financial Phantoms
Banking form that shelters streams of shadow.
Who is this?
Ardshinbank and Unibank are presented here as representative financial institutions that, under certain conditions, may function as channels to move and obscure sanction-linked flows.
Type of node:
Financial institutional node.
Status:
Legitimate institutions that can be instrumentalized.
Form of control:
Transaction splitting, correspondent accounts, shell-company servicing, currency conversions, fabricated reporting.
Phantom image:
Bank façades that conceal a labyrinth of accounts erasing traces.
What remains after the phantom:
A network of transfers and accounts difficult to reconstruct.
Core of the node:
What sustained it?
Banking infrastructure, access to international correspondent chains, and legal mechanisms for conversion and transfers.
How did it become a phantom?
When routine procedures were repurposed to fragment and obscure flows.
Why does the phantom still exist?
Because servicing profitable, high-value transfers is lucrative, controls can be weak in some channels, and international detection is complex.
Phantom’s condition:
Active as a risk function; transaction scale and shape are variable and often concealed.
After the regime:
Independent audits and investigations;
Strengthened KYC/AML and transaction monitoring;
Transparent information-sharing with international partners on suspicious correspondences.
Collective reaction:
We record and name the risks so banks are instruments of trust, not shelters for shadow.
Core principle:
Bank legitimacy becomes infrastructure for shadow until transparency prevails.
Alt-text:
Graphite image of a bank building: windows with bank signs, interior counters and offices; through glass, a web of crossing accounts, shadowed documents and payment routes; atmosphere of financial opacity.
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Unmasking the Phantom. Pivtorak.Studio. 23.09.2025
🛡️ This project is an artistic and philosophical exploration. All depictions are allegorical; the piece does not allege facts about specific private individuals without corroborated evidence.
🫧Phantom Node Dossier: Armenian Banks (Ardshinbank & Unibank). Shadow Accounts.
Key Aspects of the Phantom:
"Shadow Accounts" (or "Financial Ghosts"). This phantom node symbolizes not the physical bank buildings, but their ability to act as a parallel financial system for sanctions evasion. Their phantom essence lies in the fact that they use their legal authority to facilitate illegal operations, turning themselves into a key channel for the movement of sanctioned funds.
Regimes (which it directly shapes/supports):
💰 Regime of "Banking Invisibility": The use of formally legal banking infrastructure to conduct transactions that remain invisible to international regulatory bodies.
📄 Regime of "Documentary Emulation": The creation of fake financial reports and transaction descriptions that hide the true purpose of transfers.
🔄 Regime of "Financial Decomposition": The breaking down of large transactions into smaller amounts to avoid monitoring and verification thresholds.
🕵️♂️ Regime of "Anonymous Fiduciary": Banks act as fiduciaries for front companies, thereby obscuring the real beneficiaries of the operations.
Tools (which it actively uses/oversees):
💵 Currency Conversions: Rapid conversion of funds into different currencies (e.g., from Rubles to Euros via local currency) to obscure the trail.
🔗 Correspondent Accounts: The use of a network of correspondent accounts with banks in other countries to facilitate complex and multi-stage transfers.
👥 Network of Front Clients: The use of shell companies and strawman clients to manage accounts and conduct transactions.
📈 "Mirroring" Transactions: The movement of funds through several seemingly unrelated accounts, which makes tracing the final recipient difficult.
Civilizational Influences (which it embodies/exploits):
💔 Undermining the Global Financial System: Its activities erode the integrity of the international financial system, rendering sanctions ineffective.
⚖️ Destruction of Financial Law: This node is a clear example of financial institutions actively subverting international law for profit.
⛓️ Enabling Freedom of Operation: It allows the worst actors in the world—from sanctioned regimes to terrorist groups—to operate with financial impunity.
🕳️ Erosion of Accountability: This phantom embodies a system where financial institutions can profit from illegal activities without facing consequences.
Dissection of a Phantom Node. Pivtorak.Studio. 23.09.2025
🛡️ This project is an artistic and philosophical exploration. All depictions are allegorical; the piece does not allege facts about specific private individuals without corroborated evidence.
