Cosmobet’s expansion and tax avoidance: how executives linked to Russian entrepreneur Serhii Tokarev are attempting to preserve the empire behind the blocked Cosmolot

Cosmolot blocked, UAH 700 million frozen, and a new casino brand, Cosmobet, allegedly linked to the former operator’s team. After Cosmolot ran into trouble, a new brand appeared on the Ukrainian market, registered to former casino executive Mykhailo Zborovskyi. According to media reports, former Cosmolot managers helped launch Cosmobet, and the project has been linked to Russian businessman Serhii Tokarev.

References to this story are now reportedly being scrubbed from the internet. We are republishing the material to recall how a new gambling brand emerged around Cosmolot following the freezing of funds and an investigation into possible tax evasion, who was behind its launch, and what questions have been raised about Cosmobet’s links to the previous business.

The Cosmolot blocked in Ukraine is turning into Cosmobet. This is how Russian Sergey Tokarev is trying to keep casino revenues in Ukraine, writes the publication "Antimafia."

"While Vbet is seeking the removal of arrests from its accounts, Russian Sergey Tokarev realized that nothing good awaits him in the courts, and now instead of the effectively destroyed Cosmolot he is promoting his new brainchild — Cosmobet," the article states.

Recall that at the end of March the project received a license for an online casino, and the word "bet" in the name clearly hints at betting. Whether LLC "Neurolink" plans to purchase another license or Tokarev simply decided to emphasize continuity in the name is still difficult to say.

Cosmobet is registered to Mykhailo Zborovskyi, who previously headed Cosmolot. Together with former Cosmo COO Dmytro Diachenko, he has already conducted a raid on major acquiring banks and opened accounts there for the new casino.

Moreover, according to media sources, Cosmobet representatives have already held a series of meetings with webmasters and announced the imminent launch of the project. As we can see, even during wartime and even in such a heavily regulated market, nothing prevents Russians from opening new businesses.

Why was Cosmolot blocked?

In February 2024, the Bureau of Economic Security seized UAH 700 million in the accounts of one of Ukraine’s largest gambling companies, "Cosmolot," suspected of evading UAH 1.2 billion in taxes. BES detectives exposed one of the largest online gambling licensees for evading UAH 1.2 billion in taxes. According to the investigation, a group of company employees organized unlicensed online gambling.

The company "Spacex" operates under the Cosmolot brand. It received its first online casino license in February 2021. In 2023, LLC "Spacex" received UAH 27 billion in net revenue from the sale of products (goods, works, services). Its participants are Serhiy Potapov and German citizen Arnulf Ekkehard Neumann-Damerau, registered in the United Kingdom. In an interview with the Financial Times, co-owner Damerau claimed that corrupt officials in Ukrainian law enforcement agencies and the Presidential Administration are allegedly trying to extort tens of millions of euros from him.

In the Lithuanian media outlet The Lithuania article "Sergey Tokarev: secret agent or talented entrepreneur?" dated March 7, 2024, LLC "Spacex," operating under the "Cosmolot" brand, is linked to Russian businessman Sergey Tokarev. Sergey Tokarev created a number of online gambling and IT projects in Russia. In particular, he developed gambling businesses under the brands "Vulkan" and Vulkan. The Russian businessman Tokarev was under SNBO sanctions from 2018 to 2020.

Thus, Russian gambling businesses successfully bypass the obstacles set by Ukrainian authorities. When changing beneficiaries failed, the managers of Russian Sergey Tokarev, without bothering with the name, simply "clone" Cosmolot into Cosmobet.