on April 12, 2024, the owner of the Pin-UP casino, Dmitry Punin, was detained in Cyprus on a lawsuit filed by the United Kingdom. He was accused of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in the European Union, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, and organizing illegal gambling and tax evasion.

The court approved a request from law enforcement to transfer more than UAH 2.2 billion, frozen in the accounts of an online casino linked to representatives of Russia, to the National Agency for Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA).
This information was reported by the press services of the State Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Prosecutor General.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the frozen funds were held in the accounts of companies offering online casino services in Ukraine, which are connected to Russian business interests and capital.

The investigation revealed that online casino bookmakers operated through controlled companies, including financial firms within Ukraine, to generate excessive profits. These earnings were subsequently laundered within Russia using financial instruments such as P2P transfers, payment systems, or virtual assets.

The State Bureau of Investigation is conducting an inquiry as part of criminal proceedings related to financing activities aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order, laundering property, creating and participating in a criminal organization, and the failure of law enforcement officers to act against illegal lottery activities (Part 4 of Article 110-2, Part 2 of Article 209, Part 2 of Article 255, and Part 1 of Article 365-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

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