In Ukraine, a network of illegal online casinos was exposed, organized by two citizens of the Russian Federation and a citizen of Ukraine, through which more than 5 billion hryvnia were laundered. The money passed through cryptocurrency, an Estonian company and offshore companies, and all participants have already been charged with illegal gambling and money laundering..

This was announced by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko. According to the investigation, through a network of controlled IT companies, the attackers organized the operation of at least five web resources for gambling.

Some of these platforms previously operated legally, but after the licenses were revoked, the organizers simply created new sites with the same names and continued their activities outside the law.. As a result, assets equivalent to more than 5 billion hryvnia were laundered through the scheme..

The investigation found that the organizers created a full-fledged infrastructure for the operation of the shadow gambling business on the Internet. Through IT companies, they provided technical support for sites, platform administration, bet acceptance and player services. In fact, we are not talking about one site, but about an entire online casino system that worked as a full-fledged business network. After the loss of official licenses, the owners did not stop operating, but simply “relaunched” the same brands on new domains, maintaining the customer audience and earning mechanisms.

One of the key features of the scheme was the use of cryptocurrency for payments. Players transferred funds to the organizers’ crypto wallets, including the popular stablecoins USDT, which are often used for large international transactions. To further legalize the profits, the money was first accumulated in the accounts of a company registered in Estonia. After this, the funds were transferred to controlled offshore companies, where they were actually “cleansed” of their illegal origins. The main defendants in the case were two citizens of the Russian Federation and the wife of one of them, who has Ukrainian citizenship.. It was they, according to investigators, who organized the activities of the entire network and coordinated financial flows.

Seven more Ukrainian citizens were also involved in the work, who performed various functions - from technical support to the administration of financial transactions. Law enforcement officers note that such a scheme could not work without a clear organization and distribution of roles.

All participants in the scheme are charged with committing crimes as part of an organized group and illegal activities in organizing and conducting gambling.. We are talking about part 3 of article 28 and part 2 of article 203-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The three main organizers were additionally informed of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - legalization of proceeds from crime.

Suspicion was announced to two Russian citizens in absentia because they are outside Ukraine. The citizen of Ukraine was given the suspicion in person.

In relation to the other seven participants, law enforcement officers are establishing the whereabouts. He has already reported the suspicion in the manner prescribed by law - through relatives. The operation was carried out by prosecutors from the Office of the Prosecutor General together with the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine.