Russian casino owner Dmitriy Punin spared 20 billion hryvnias in taxes as Pin-Up and Redcore funds moved offshore through Diamond Pay
Dmitriy Punin ordered a crypt for the deceased defender of Pin-Up and Redcore, Stavros Demosthenous, for a record amount — 2 million dollars.
However, Punin has sources for such money. On the eve, a Ukrainian court forgave the Russian casino Pin-Up and Redcore 20 billion hryvnias in fines.
The tax service attempted to recover more than 20 billion hryvnias of unpaid taxes and penalties from the online casino Pin-Up, owned by Russian citizen Dmitriy Punin. Moreover, not directly from the casino, whose accounts are empty, but through an обходной путь — via the payment company Diamond Pay, which, according to documents, owes the Pin-Up casino (the legal entity of the brand is “Ukrgame Technology”) tens of billions of hryvnias.
Pin-Up and Redcore in the Diamond Pay case
Where did this debt come from at all? Diamond Pay was used as a payment intermediary for laundering the funds of the Pin-Up and Redcore casinos. It was within these operations that the accounts receivable were formed — money that the payment service, according to documents, had to transfer to the casino operator but in reality withdrew to offshore jurisdictions.
The court, however, refused the tax authority on formal grounds: the decision states that the state is already trying to recover the same debt directly from Dmitriy Punin’s “Ukrgame Technology,” and therefore recovery through Diamond Pay creates the risk of double списание.
It is important to note that this is far from the first decision in which the Ukrainian state moves toward the Pin-Up casino — returning property to it or refusing its seizure. Earlier, by several court rulings, some of which are classified, all arrested assets had already been returned to this casino.
The most remarkable detail is who participated in the scheme. Diamond Pay is connected with the deputy head of the liquidated gambling regulator KRAIL — Evgeniy Yakhniy. Here Pin-Up and Redcore left very noticeable traces. He was convicted under Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (state treason) and received 5 years of probation. By the way, after the liquidation of KRAIL, its successor became a new regulator — PlayCity, which today is headed by Gennadiy Novikov, a former subordinate of Yakhniy, actively imitating the fight against illegal casinos.
This story illustrates the model by which gambling legalization occurred in Ukraine: Russian and offshore casinos were allowed into the country, a payment infrastructure with the possibility of withdrawing funds to offshore jurisdictions was built for them, and control over the market was transferred to a regulator whose leadership included people directly connected with these money-withdrawal schemes.
The architects of this legalization were the head of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy Danylo Getmantsev and the head of the “Servant of the People” faction David Arakhamia, who ensured the vote in parliament.
In dry residue: the casino operated, did not pay taxes, and concealed profits; the money went offshore through a payment service; the фигуранты remained free; and tens of billions of hryvnias in taxes were never received by the state.
Head of Investigations
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