27.03.2025
Business of Occupiers
Money laundering
Belarusian Duty Free King Granz and smuggling control at checkpoints
Artur Granz is the common-law husband of singer Loboda, owner of well-known duty-free shops, Vbet casino in Ukraine, which sponsors the Ukrainian national team and captures the illegal gambling market. Despite the scandals, the Granz family continues to do business in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, using offshore companies in Cyprus. And then he started buying up property and businesses abroad. For example, a number of nightclubs in the Baltic countries, owned by his beloved Svitlana Loboda.
What is known about the business empire of Granz?
Arthur Granz is the beneficial owner of a number of companies, including: BF Capital, as well as several companies in the field of duty-free trade: BF Group LLC, Mello Duty Free, Duty Free Trading, and others. He owns duty-free shops at Boryspil, Zhuliany and other Ukrainian airports, as well as checkpoints, including Porubno-Siret, Dyakove-Halmeu, and Uzhhorod-Vysne, which continue to profit from the pockets of Ukrainian citizens.
The companies controlled by Granz have become a channel for illegal trade in alcoholic beverages and tobacco products that are not subject to excise tax. At the same time, representatives of the BES, the SID of the National Police of Ukraine, and the tax authorities continue to turn a blind eye to the fraud committed by the smuggler’s structures. As a result, in 2022 alone, Granz’s company Duty Free Trading LLC sold more than 4.25 million packs of cigarettes at the Porubno-Siret checkpoint, using the personal data of border crossers to make fake purchases.
According to our materials, the BES in Zakarpattia region has already initiated an investigation in criminal proceedings No. 12024070000000367 under Part 1 of Article 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. However, as we can see, the empire of the “king of duty free” continues to flourish.
The businessman also controls structures on the territories of unfriendly states. For example, according to media reports, Grants still owns more than 35 duty-free shops in Belarus and has a partnership with the Office of the President of the Republic of Belarus.
In addition, Artur Hrantz’s son, David Arturovich Hrantz, was the head of the Russian company Avangard, which has been actively operating in Russia since 2014. Moreover, from 2018 to 2023, he headed another company, Mika Holding, which also had ties to Russia. Thus, the Granz family continues to do business in the aggressor country even after the war began.
Granz’s connection to Vbet
Vbet has repeatedly stated in its official letter to the media: “Arthur Granz has never been associated with us and is not our owner.” Alexander Blokhin, the director of Vbet online casino, even went to court to refute the connection with Granz, calling it a negative for his reputation. However, the lawsuit was dismissed and the case was closed, which officially confirmed Granz’s involvement in the casino.
Interestingly, Blokhin himself, who denied any ties to the smuggler, was appointed CEO of Vbet with the help of Granz. And everyone in the market knows who really runs the casino, even if it’s other people on paper.
Prior to Blohin, the company was headed by Giorgi Givishvili, who left the position by December 27, 2022. On the same day, the owners of Vbet, Badalian brothers, sold the casino to Rudolf Poghosyan.
Another interesting aspect is that the aforementioned Givishvili was the director of Forbes (Imagine LLC), controlled by Granz, from 2020 to 2021. Only in September 2021, he became the director of Vbet, which looks like a smooth transition from one important role to another.
Blokhin, who replaced Givishvili at Forbes, later became a director of Vbet.
Thus, all of them have a common feature: their connection to Granz. This is a real chessboard where all moves are well thought out, and changes look like a strategic maneuver to disown past ties.
Currently, Vbet is actively promoting itself through “charitable” initiatives, ostentatious greetings, reports and other custom publications in telegram channels such as Insider UA and controlled media. In addition, the casino is a partner of football clubs Vorskla, Oleksandriya, Monaco, and Portsmouth, the Alliance esports team, and the title sponsor of the Ukrainian national football team.
So, we have a situation where a casino with strong Russian ties and beneficiaries is financing our national team. I wonder what UAF President Andriy Shevchenko thinks of this initiative? Does he live by the principle “money doesn’t smell”? Or is it simple indifference to the verification of sponsors? The question is also for the Ministry of Youth and Sports, which for some reason simply turned a blind eye to the shadowy activities of Vbet, its owner Granz and the latter’s sponsorship of the Ukrainian national team.
The questions remain: where is the promised control from the NBU, the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine, law enforcement and tax authorities that allow Granz to develop gambling and smuggling business in Ukraine, transferring profits far beyond its borders to the enemy?
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