PIN-UP

PIN-UP Ukraine is a Ukrainian online casino that was one of the first in Ukraine to receive a license to operate. Formally registered in Ukraine, it is actually part of a global brand created by Russian citizens. The founders include Alexander Matyashov, Ivan Bannikov, Dmitry Punin, and Marina Ilyina. After the full-scale invasion, these individuals officially withdrew from the shareholding, but evidence confirms their actual influence on the business

PIN-UP ownership structure

PIN-UP is a huge international holding company founded in 2016 in Russia by three Russian citizens: Alexander Matyashov, Ivan Bannikov and Dmitry Punin. Their company Guruflow Team Limited in Cyprus became the offshore foundation of PIN-UP, which later entered international markets. It is worth noting that, like many other similar gambling companies, PIN-UP structure is legally divided into several parts, each of which is responsible for its own area of work.

So, at the end of 2019, Dmitry Punin registered Guruflow Team Limited in Cyprus and issued 1000 shares of this company, which were divided into 500 shares each between two other offshore companies: Pirpos Holding Ltd. and Monaco Limited. The owners of the first one are Punin himself and his wife Marina Ilyina, a native of Luhansk who later moved to Moscow (she was the only one of the founders to have Ukrainian citizenship). The second company is owned by Matyashov (Riddick) and Bannikov. Thus, everyone received 250 shares in Guruflow Team Limited, which owns the legal entity of the pin-up. There is also information about the Maltese company Pin-up Entertainment LTD, whose beneficiary is the aforementioned Guruflow.

PIN-UP appeared in Ukraine at the end of 2020, even before the official legalization of gambling in the country. Nowadays, the company’s representatives justify their activities by claiming that they worked under an international license. Despite its young age, the gambling club managed to gain a lot of credibility among Ukrainian gamblers.

Officially, UKR GAME TECHNOLOGIES LLC received a gambling license from CRGL (decision of CRGL No. 147 dated 09.04.2021) under the PIN-UP brand. Technically, it is a Ukrainian company. But PIN-UP is not only UKR GAME TECHNOLOGIES LLC.

PIN-UP is also represented in Ukraine through a number of legal entities associated with Russian citizens and companies:

1. TURBO.UA LLC – founder until 2022, Russian citizen Dmitry Punin. The company has now been re-registered as a Cypriot legal entity PIPROSE HOLDING, which is also controlled by Punin and his wife Inna Ilyina.
2. VICTORIA-SOFT LLC is an operator that operated under the Pin-Up brand. The license was canceled due to the discovery of inaccurate information about the lack of ties with Russian business.
3. GURUFLOW TEAM LTD is a company founded by Dmytro Punin and his wife. It is currently re-registered to other legal entities, but remains under their control. From November 2021 to April 13, 2022, it was the owner of the Pin-Up online project in the Russian market, namely the company PIN-UP.RU LLC.
4. TRANITADEVELOPMENT LLC – until January 10, 2023, the company was called Pin-Up LLC, and its beneficiary was Marina Ilyina. After a wave of scandals related to Ilyina’s rapid move to the Russian Federation, she lost her beneficiary status, and Bohdan Shyian became the new owner, who renamed the company Tranitadevelopment LLC. However, according to open data, this person has considerable debts for utilities and loans. So, it turns out that a person who receives millions from casinos cannot pay a few thousand hryvnias for a loan and utilities. It comes to mind that Shiyan is a completely fake pawn of Ilyina and her Russian husband.

Thus, the global situation began to change with the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. The Russian office of Pin-Up was the first to react. Already in March 2022, the Russian market was rebranded, and the Pin-Up online casino was renamed Ivanbet. And in April, it became Fonbet and also entered the Russian betting market. In May 2022, PIN-UP.RU changed its name to FONKOR, and in 2022, it paid RUB 579 million in taxes to the Russian budget.

In general, after the start of the full-scale invasion, the Russians began to “dissociate” themselves from PIN-UP. In June 2022, Ukrainian Marina Ilyina became the owner of the Cypriot company Guruflow Team Limited. She also began to position Pin-Up as a business “originally from Ukraine.” But in reality, the former Russian founders continue to control the processes. Despite the legal changes: Russian shareholders continue to participate in brand events, while Matyashov controls affiliate programs that generate revenue for the brand.

There have been no major changes in the Ukrainian branch of the online casino since the beginning of the war. The company is quietly working, earning money, and becoming a full-fledged leader, but the following is interesting. It has been established that the Ukrainian division of the gambling company PIN-UP, UKR GAME TECHNOLOGIES LLC, transferred funds to GURUFLOW TEAM LTD as license fees for software in the amount of more than UAH 170 million from January 19, 2022 to February 26, 2024.

The investigating judge of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv, Oleksandr Meleshak, dismissed our complaints demanding that the BES law enforcement officers investigate the case of Russian financing of the PIN-UP casino operating in Ukraine (case No. 761/44043/24).

Currently, the PIN-UP brand in Ukraine is nominally owned by Igor Zotko. The latter became the owner of the Ukrainian part of the PIN-UP brand in March 2023, having bought the business from a “mysterious investor”.

In April 2024, Pin-UP casino owner Dmitry Punin was arrested in Limassol. Punin was accused of laundering millions of dollars in the EU, Ukraine, and the UK. Punin, a Russian, is accused of organizing illegal gambling and tax evasion. Along with Punin, Igor Zotko is involved in the criminal proceedings.

In addition, it is worth noting that Igor Zotko owns the payment system Yediniy Prostir LLC, which is closely related to Diya. The company earns a lot of money when Ukrainians pay for traffic violations, single tax and other services in Diia. According to rough estimates, the revenue of Yedynyi Prostir LLC in 2022 will reach more than UAH 25 million. It turns out that the Ministry of Digital Transformation, headed by Fedorov, is closely connected to the Russian Punin through Zotko and is financing terrorism.

Why is PIN-UP still not under sanctions?

Back in the spring of 2023, the National Security and Defense Council imposed sanctions on a number of gambling operators that are somehow connected to Russia. These are dozens of companies, hundreds of individuals, and loud statements about the inadmissibility of this phenomenon. For some reason, the list does not include Pin-UP online casino, which was created by Russians.

The biggest question in this story is about the regulator of the Ukrainian gambling business, the Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (CRGL). Having indisputable evidence that PIN-UP was controlled by the Russians, this body refused to revoke their license at the last minute and has been hiding from public comment for two months.

Taking into account the information received about the existence of indirect control relations by residents of the Russian Federation over the activities of certain licensees, KRAIL considered the issue of revoking the licenses of UKR GAME TECHNOLOGIES LLC and VICTORIA-SOFT LLC. The first company holds the license, and the second is a structural part of PIN-UP, which is responsible for software development and maintains the gambling website.

During the meeting of the Commission, its newly appointed member, Yevhen Yakhniy, suddenly fell ill and the meeting was postponed for a week. In fact, it looked as if Yakhniy, who had been appointed to the Commission by Prime Minister Shmyhal only a few weeks earlier, had deliberately disrupted the crucial meeting. By the way, Yakhniy was the founder and director of the payment operator X Pay. Even market participants associate his appearance in the commission with shadow groups of influence of law enforcement agencies on the gambling market.

As a result, VICTORIA-SOFT LLC was deprived of its license on the basis of indisputable evidence, but the second company, UKR GAME TECHNOLOGIES, which is the basis of Pin-UP, was left untouched. The latter even filed a lawsuit against KRAIL, which sought to prohibit it from considering the revocation of the license. The head of KRAIL, Ivan Rudyi, ignores appeals and requests from the media and MPs and simply hides from this topic.

Pechersk Court Orders Billions to Be Returned to Russian Casino

On May 13, 2024, the Pechersk District Court seized the accounts of Pin-Up online casino (Ukr Game Technology LLC) as part of the criminal proceedings of the State Bureau of Investigation. As a result, UAH 2.6 billion was transferred to the management of the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA). With these funds, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the purchase of military bonds by ARMA for UAH 2 billion.

However, on October 25, 2024, Judge Svitlana Smyk of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv ruled to lift the seizure of UAH 2.6 billion and return it to the Russian casino Pin-UP. The decision was made in record time, and the judge personally notified the banks of the lifting of the arrest. This case raises the question: how does a Russian casino not only operate in Ukraine but also “manage” state institutions? And whose interests are judges really protecting?

Detention of Igor Zotko in the case of PIN-UP online casino

On January 9, 2025, the media reported on the detention of Igor Zotko, the nominal owner of the PIN-UP online casino, who is suspected of collaborating with the aggressor state. Investigators claim that the actual owners of the company are Russian citizens, and Zotko had no legal sources to contribute UAH 30 million to the authorized capital of the company, which received a gambling license.

According to the SBI, the suspect stayed in Cyprus for a long time, where he maintained contacts with Russians who are the real owners of the online casino. The SBI statement emphasizes that the investigation has documentary evidence of PIN-UP’s ties to Russian representatives, Russian capital, and sanctioned entities in Ukraine.

Based on the collected evidence, the actual beneficiaries of the online casino, a top manager of the regulatory authority, as well as the director and owner of the trademark and domain name with the assistance of the aggressor state were served with a notice of suspicion.

This is an important step in the investigation that may shed light on the real ties of Pin-Up online casino to Russia. However, whether this will have real consequences for everyone involved in the business remains an open question. Further developments may reveal a much deeper influence of Russian shareholders than it seems at first glance.

More about PIN-UP and its Russian trace in the investigation Digital Crimes 2. Casino. Onlyfans. Call centers. Arbitration. Slobozhenko. Traffic Jack Team”