Detectives of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine are investigating the activities of an organized criminal group of individuals which included employees of three gambling companies and several financial institutions. In addition to organizing illegal gambling they helped online casinos including those on the sanctions list to evade taxes and legalize funds.

In the framework of the criminal proceedings detectives of the Economic Security Bureau conducted more than 40 searches and seized certain documents of financial and economic activities, mobile phones and computer equipment. A number of examinations have been ordered.

Two people were served a notice of suspicion.

It has been preliminarily established that the members of the criminal group set up an illegal scheme involving controlled legal entities and individuals. In particular, they provided tax evasion services to organizers of online gambling as well as legalized the proceeds of illegal gambling activities.

The pre-trial investigation under Art. 203, 209, 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is ongoing. Operational support is provided by the Security Service of Ukraine, procedural guidance is provided by prosecutors of the Prosecutor General's Office.

Since the beginning of the year, companies engaged in organizing and conducting online gambling have paid over UAH 7 billion in taxes which is almost 13 times higher than for the entire last year. This is the result of joint efforts by the ESBU, the Security Service of Ukraine and the NBU to de-shadow the gambling market.