Online casinos and Russian money laundering schemes: how Alexey Kharitonov and Herman Polyakov became FSB targets
Russian nationals Alexey Kharitonov and Herman Polyakov, along with fraudulent online casinos CAT, GAMA, DADDY, MERS, and KENT, allegedly operated by Ukrainians, are now under investigation by security agencies.
The FSB suspects those who gamble at these casinos of financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The list of such gaming establishments will surely be updated with new entities since the mentioned casinos participate in various affiliate programs with other casinos. This is evidenced by reports from various sources.
The operator of the casinos "Arcade", "Comet", R7, and Spark, which have not yet come under FSB scrutiny, is Creative Active Technology N.V., with registration number 165799. If you search for it, you will end up on one of the registries of organizations where the managing casino company is registered, but this does not happen.
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The operator of the casino Mers is Fun Fusion N.V., located at Abraham de Veerstraat 9 Willemstad, Curacao. The same place where Creative Active Technology N.V., managing the casinos "Arcade", "Comet", R7, and Spark, is located. The registration number for Fun Fusion N.V. is 156583, but it is not found in the databases.
Fun Fusion N.V. is connected to Solvexi Limited, which is not found in the databases by registration number 422235. This company is mentioned on the Camma casino website along with Traflow Media N.V. According to various sources, it manages the remaining Ukrainian casinos. The registration number of the company is 156583, but it is also not found in the databases.
On the Gamma casino website, the company Neticss LTD (reg. number 13237657) also appears, which, surprisingly, turned out to be real. It is located in London at Suite 17020, 43 Bedford Street. From March 2021 to December 2023, the director of Neticss LTD was Ukrainian Olga Filipchuk, which confirms the Ukrainian connection in the above-mentioned casinos.
Until July 2023, control over Neticss LTD belonged to Ukrainians Anastasiya Pankova and Oleksandra Smakova. All Ukrainians are likely nominees since they do not own any assets in their country, making it impossible to determine who is behind them.
Now Neticss LTD is controlled by Arman Magoyan, with Ani Postolokyan as the CEO. The only real company associated with a whole pool of casinos previously belonged to Ukrainians and now to Armenian citizens. Indicating fictitious structures as managing companies is already fraud; therefore, the change of owners and their country of residence could have been an attempt to cover tracks so that Russian and Ukrainian security services could not trace the casino’s beneficiaries.
Some of the casinos mentioned above have repeatedly been involved in various scandals – players complained that they could not withdraw money. Here are, for example, reviews of the CAT casino.
The fact that the casino allows money to be withdrawn to other countries is evidenced by the business card of Mers casino. Four languages and any type of payment are available.
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Our editorial investigation confirmed that the above-mentioned casinos could have owners from Ukraine who hid behind the backs of Armenian citizens. The casinos operate in Russia, but no traces of Alexey Kharitonov and Herman Polyakov were found.
All the listed casinos are openly fraudulent, as evidenced by player reviews and the indication of non-existent managing companies on the casino websites.