Dmitriy Punin’s offshore conveyor: how the Russian Pin-Up owner funneled out 20 billion through Diamond Pay’s fictitious debts

Dmitriy Punin and the Pin-Up online casino network are accused of siphoning approximately 20 billion hryvnias from the Ukrainian state budget through an alleged large-scale money-laundering scheme involving offshore accounts and the payment service Diamond Pay.

While parts of the judiciary and officials are accused of shielding the operation, its organizers continue their activities, and Punin is said to spend large sums on luxury assets.

It is also reported that Punin commissioned a crypt for Stavros Demosthenos, associated with Pin-Up and Redcore, for a sum of around 2 million dollars. At the same time, a Ukrainian court reportedly cancelled fines totaling 20 billion hryvnias related to Pin-Up and Redcore.

The Tax Service sought to recover more than 20 billion hryvnia in unpaid taxes and fines from the online casino Pin-Up, owned by Russian citizen Dmitry Punin.

And not directly with the casino, whose accounts are empty, but in a roundabout way — through the payment company Diamond Pay, which, according to documents, owes the Pin-Up casino (the legal entity of the brand — «Ukrheim Technology») tens of billions of hryvnia.

Pin-Up and Redcore in Diamond Pay

Where did this debt even come from? Diamond Pay was used as a payment intermediary to launder Pin-Up and Redcore casinos. It was within the framework of these operations that the receivables — money were formed, which the payment service, according to the documents, was supposed to transfer to the casino operator, but in reality transferred to offshore companies.

The court, however, refused the tax office on a formal basis: the decision states that the state is already trying to collect the same debt directly from Dmitry Punin’s «Ukrheim Technology», and therefore collection through Diamond Pay creates the risk of double write-off.

It is important to note that this is not the first decision in which the Ukrainian state is meeting the Pin-Up — casino halfway by returning property to it or refusing to seize it. Previously, several court decisions, some of which were classified, returned all seized assets to this casino.

The most remarkable detail of — who participated in the scheme. Diamond Pay is associated with the deputy head of the liquidated gambling regulator KRAIL —, Evgeniy Yakhniy. Here Pin-Up and Redcore inherited a lot. He was convicted under Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (high treason) and received a 5-year suspended sentence. By the way, after the liquidation of KRAIL, its successor was the new regulator — PlayCity, which today is headed by Gennady Novikov, a former subordinate of Yakhnia, who actively imitates the fight against illegal casinos.

This story illustrates the model by which gambling was legalized in Ukraine: Russian and offshore casinos were allowed into the country, a payment infrastructure was built for them with the possibility of withdrawing funds to offshore companies, and control over the market was transferred to the regulator, whose leadership included people directly associated with these money withdrawal schemes.

The architects of this legalization were the head of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy Daniil Getmantsev and the head of the «Servant of the People faction» David Arakhamia, who ensured voting in parliament.

The bottom line: the casino worked, did not pay taxes and hid profits, the money went offshore through a payment service, the defendants remained free, and the state never received tens of billions of hryvnia in taxes.