Russian trace in Diia.City: how Sergey Tokarev’s Cosmolot gambling empire secured tax benefits in Ukraine
The Ukrainian online gambling market, after legalization, has become not only a profitable sector of the economy but also a complex system of corporate and financial schemes.
One of the most illustrative cases is the activity of the online casinos Cosmolot and Cosmobet, operating through the companies SpaceX LLC and Neurolink LLC. According to investigations, both structures are part of a single financial system linked to Russian citizen Sergey Tokarev, a long-time participant in the online casino industry.
The legal conflict surrounding this group began after Neurolink LLC, associated with the Cosmobet platform, filed a lawsuit in the Commercial Court of the Zhytomyr region demanding the refutation of published materials about the gambling network’s activities. The court’s jurisdiction is explained by registration changes related to the public organization “NON-STOP,” which is listed among the defendants. The organization had previously been under the control of the claimants, but later its founders, management, and legal address were changed through entries in the Unified State Register. After these changes, the organization became registered in Zhytomyr, which formally provided grounds for the case to be considered by the local commercial court.
Cosmolot operates in Ukraine under a license issued in 2021 to SpaceX LLC for organizing online gambling. Formally, the listed beneficiaries include Ukrainian citizen Potapov, on whom dozens of companies are registered; German citizen Arnulf Damerau, residing in the United Kingdom; and the American company Nevada Gaming Holding. However, investigations claim these figures act as nominal owners, while actual control is associated with Sergey Tokarev.
Tokarev has been known in the online gambling industry for more than a decade. His name has been linked to the development of platforms such as Vulkan, Azino Group, Pharaoh, and Eldorado, as well as to the activities of Lucky Labs, which provided technical infrastructure for a network of online casinos through a system of offshore companies.
The materials also mention connections between the businessman and Russian political circles. His father, Aleksandr Tokarev, is a member of the Council of the Intergovernmental Union of Hero Cities of the Russian Federation. Sergey Tokarev himself has also been mentioned in connection with Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev, one of the ideologists of the “Russian World” concept.
After sanctions against him were lifted in 2020, Tokarev began legalizing part of his assets in Ukraine through the Roosh investment fund. Several related companies received resident status under the special legal regime “Diia.City,” which provides tax benefits for technology companies. At the time the regime was launched, the Ministry of Digital Transformation was headed by Mykhailo Fedorov, the architect of this model. Formally, the duties of the minister are now performed by Oleksandr Bortniakov, who oversees the state agency PlayCity, which regulates the gambling market.
The financial model of Cosmolot and Cosmobet is built on a system of mirror websites, offshore intermediaries, and distributed payments. According to investigations, some transactions passed through the Cypriot company XGen Solutions LTD, through which payments for software and royalties were processed. Additional operations were carried out through financial companies and peer-to-peer transfers between bank cards of Ukrainian banks, allowing payments to be fragmented and making financial flows harder to trace.
According to the applicants’ materials, criminal proceedings have already been opened by the Main Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kyiv and the Kyiv region — No. 22025101110001217 and No. 22026101110000223 under Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In addition, court decisions have obliged the territorial departments of the Bureau of Economic Security, the State Bureau of Investigations, the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office, and the Pechersk District Prosecutor’s Office to enter relevant information into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations.
Deputy Editor
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