The Architect of Shadow Gambling: How Maksym Sihalov Ended Up at the Center of Billion-Hryvnia Schemes and Why His Extradition Is Being Discussed

The story of Ukraine’s gambling business in recent years is not only about bright neon signs, legalization, and taxes to the budget. Parallel to the official market, for years there was another infrastructure — payment gateways, P2P transfers, networks of cardholders, intermediary companies, and complex financial chains through which funds could move outside ordinary banking and state control. One of the most prominent names in this story is Maksym Yuriyovych Sihalov, known in some circles by the nickname “Narkomaks.”

Just a few years ago, he remained a barely public figure, known mainly to people in the payment and gambling industries. Now his name figures in criminal proceedings, in materials of the State Bureau of Investigation and in journalistic investigations.

Maksym Sihalov

According to sources in law enforcement, as of October 2026, the Ukrainian side is also preparing documents necessary for international arrest and possibly an extradition procedure concerning Sihalov from Spain.

The scale of cases tied to him is truly substantial: we are talking about multibillion hryvnia financial flows, potential tax evasion, legalization of funds, organization of an illegal payment infrastructure, and ties to the Russian gambling business.

From local politics to the payment business

Before Sihalov’s name began appearing alongside online casinos and payment gateways, he tried his hand in local politics. At one time Maksym Sihalov was a deputy of the Krasnohvardiyske district council of Dnipro from the “Front for Change” party.

However, a political career was not the main focus of his activities. By the late 2000–the early 2010 years, Sihalov entered the electronic payments sector. He was associated with creating and developing the payment infrastructure “E-Pay” — E-Pay.

At that time, this market was just forming. Financial technologies were developing much faster than legislation and the state’s ability to control them, and electronic payments gradually became one of the key tools for businesses needing to process large volumes of small transactions quickly.

The model proved especially advantageous for online gambling. In journalistic investigations, Sihalov and his business partner Rasim Tagiev were linked to a network of payment companies, with the central place occupied by Diamond Pay LLC.

Formal owners and managers of such structures could have been other people. In open sources, Victoria Golubeva and Oleksandr Cherdak were mentioned. At the same time, in several publications, it was the “Narkomax” Sihalov who was described as the person who effectively controlled the financial architecture of these processes.

And it was this infrastructure that later came under the scrutiny of law enforcement.

Hundreds of billions in transactions

One of the main charges of the investigation concerns the scale of operations that passed through payment systems connected with this group. According to estimates cited in materials of the State Bureau of Investigation and industry-led investigations, the total volume of transactions through the relevant infrastructure could reach hundreds of billions of hryvnias. In separate publications, the figure of around 275 billion hryvnias was named.

The key problem was not the existence of such turnover itself, but the way some payments were carried out. The investigation described a scheme in which payments related to gambling could be camouflaged as ordinary transfers between individuals or payments for other services. In the financial sphere, such practices are often described by the term “miscoding” — when a transaction is processed with a code that does not match its real purpose.

In practice, it could look very simple. A player funded an online casino account, but for the bank the operation might appear not as a gambling payment but as a regular transfer to the card of a private individual.

Then the funds went through a large number of accounts or cards of so-called “drops” — people whose banking details were used to carry out other people’s financial operations. After that, the funds could be withdrawn as cash, transferred further, or converted into cryptocurrency.

This very model, according to the investigation, allowed the real nature of the operations to be hidden and reduced tax burdens. Separately in the materials of the State Bureau of Investigation, the company “E-Pay” was mentioned. According to the investigation, for about two years its declared income could have been understated by 21,8 billion hryvnias. In this case, potential budget losses from unpaid profit tax were estimated at about 3,9 billion hryvnias.

Russian trace and financing of terrorism

Sihalov is also accused of having ties with the country of aggression. In media materials, it was repeatedly noted that Maksym Sihalov’s brother, Ihor Sihalov, lives in Moscow and is connected with the Russian gambling business, notably with the Inbet brand.

A family connection in itself is not proof of illegal activity. Nevertheless, investigators were interested not in personal contacts but in concrete financial operations. In July 2024, the National Bank of Ukraine canceled the Diamond Pay license. In materials accompanying this decision, risks associated with Russian citizens and transactions from Russian territory were described.

According to law enforcement, more than 1,3 billion hryvnias in payments could have passed through payment channels using bank cards issued by Russian banks. Against the backdrop of full-scale war, this already turns a regular financial investigation into a national security issue. The Russian vector in the activities of structures linked to Sihalov did not arise after 2022 year. As early as 2016, Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court was examining materials regarding E-Pay accounts in a criminal case related to financing of terrorism.

According to the SBU, the company’s payment terminals operated in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and some funds could end up in the financial system of the so-called “DPR” and “LPR.” Despite the seriousness of those suspicions at the time, the business continued to operate.

Criminal proceedings and property

When authorities moved to a larger-scale investigation of companies connected to Sihalov, the businessman himself was no longer in Ukraine. According to journalistic materials, he had left the country and settled in Spain.

Meanwhile Ukrainian courts began freezing assets linked by investigators to him. Among such property mentioned in court documents and publications were a Range Rover 2023 of a certain year, as well as commercial real estate and funds in dozens of bank accounts. Against the backdrop of the turnover involved in the criminal proceedings, the amount of assets discovered appears modest.

Sihalov lives in Europe

Thus, one of the key questions for the investigation remains: what actual assets could have been registered to other people or moved outside Ukraine? Journalists say Sihalov is currently in Spain, in particular associated with Marbella — a popular residence for wealthy foreigners on the Costa del Sol. Investigations also described expensive family property, including premium cars and real estate. Specifically, cars such as a Mercedes-Benz Brabus and a Rolls-Royce Spectre.

But legally important here is not the level of living, but another question: who formally owns these assets, with what funds they were purchased, and can law enforcement prove their link to income from activities that became the subject of criminal proceedings.

A meeting on the French Riviera

In September 2026, Sihalov’s name resurfaced in the Ukrainian information space. Videos and photos appeared from La Guérite restaurant on the French Riviera, where, according to media reports, Sihalov sat at a table with several other well-known figures.

Kamille Primakov, Maksym Sihalov, and Dmytro Punin on the French Riviera

Among them were Dnipro city council deputy Kamil Primakov and Dmytro Punin, who is linked with the gambling brand Pin-Up. Given the criminal proceedings around the payment and gambling businesses, such a meeting naturally drew attention.

In a number of publications citing unnamed sources, it was claimed that during the meeting issues related to restoring the payment infrastructure for online gambling could have been discussed.

Will the extradition come to pass

The next stage of this story may unfold not in Ukraine. According to sources in law enforcement, as of the beginning of October 2026, the Ukrainian side is preparing documents that could serve as a basis for detaining Maksym Sihalov abroad and starting an extradition procedure.

If he really is in Spain, the final decision on his extradition to Ukraine will be made by Spanish authorities and the court. And this is an important detail: the mere fact of an open criminal proceeding in Ukraine does not automatically mean extradition. The Spanish court will assess the legal grounds of the request, the materials of Ukrainian investigation, the compliance of the alleged actions with Spanish law, procedural guarantees, and other case circumstances.

Expulsion of Sihalov from Spain

If the extradition process indeed begins, the case could go far beyond the story of a single businessman. A payment infrastructure of this scale could hardly have operated in isolation from banks, financial companies, gambling operators, officials, and people who provided the technical and legal parts of the process.

Therefore, the main question is not only whether Maksym Sihalov will be returned to Ukraine. Much more important is another: will the investigation be able to reconstruct the entire money-moving chain — from the player and the payment gateway to the companies, bank accounts, ultimate beneficiaries, and people who allowed this system to operate for years.

If this happens, the Diamond Pay story and related structures may prove to be not the case of a single financier, but one of the largest investigations into Ukraine’s shadow financial infrastructure of the gambling market.