Prosecutor's office exposes illegal online casino network with UAH 5 bln turnover – Kravchenko

Law enforcement officers exposed a network of illegal online casinos organized by two Russian citizens and the wife of one of them, a Ukrainian citizen, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko said.

"Two Russian citizens and the wife of one of them, a Ukrainian citizen, created a large-scale online gambling network. They brought seven more Ukrainians into the operation. Through affiliated IT companies, scheme participants ran at least five online casino websites. Some of them had previously operated legally, but after their licenses were revoked, the organizers created new sites with the same names and continued the illegal business," Kravchenko wrote on Telegram.

The prosecutor general noted that payments were made in cryptocurrency, including stablecoins (USDT). Players transferred funds to the organizers’ crypto wallets. To legitimize profits, money was first accumulated in accounts of a company registered in Estonia, then transferred to affiliated offshore companies.

Assets equivalent to over UAH 5 bln were laundered in this way.

All scheme participants were charged with committing crimes as part of an organized group and engaging in illegal gambling activities (Part 3 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 203-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Three organizers were additionally charged with laundering criminally obtained proceeds (Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The two Russian citizens were served with notices of suspicion in absentia, the Ukrainian citizen in person. The whereabouts of the remaining seven participants are being established. Notices of suspicion were served on them through relatives in the manner prescribed by law.