Dmitriy Punin’s fictitious debt scheme: how the Russian swindler siphoned 20 billion in Pin-Up casino cash through Diamond Pay, leaving the tax office with empty accounts
22:50, 04 июня 2026 г.
Russian fraudster Dmitriy Punin and his Pin‑Up casino network cynically stole 20 billion hryvnias from Ukraine’s budget. They laundered the money offshore through the payment service Diamond Pay. Corrupt courts and officials have covered up the tax‑evading scheme. Punin remains free — and flaunts his stolen millions on luxury crypts.
Dmitry Punin ordered a crypt for the deceased Pin-Up and Redcore defender Stavros Demosthenos for a record amount of $— 2 million. However, Punin has the funds. Recently, a Ukrainian court wrote off 20 billion hryvnia in fines from the Russian casino 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
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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.