Anatolii Rainin: links to sanctioned Aliona Shevtsova and restaurants in Warsaw

Anatolii Rainin, the son of former Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Ihor Rainin, developed a restaurant business in Warsaw from 2023 through the company Inspector gastro group, whose co‑founder is listed as Kateryna Onatska. The company’s management structure includes Rakhman Rasulzade, whom the investigators link to the payment system LeoGaming and to a network of contacts that leads to former co‑owner of Aiboks Bank Aliona Shevtsova, who is under sanctions by the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC). The coincidence in timing between the restaurant openings and the bank’s closure, as well as mentions of possible unpaid wages to employees, raised questions about the business’s activities. At the same time, the provided materials do not prove that the restaurants were used to launder funds. This is reported by the outlet Antikor.

Inspector gastro group was registered in Warsaw in January 2023. Its co‑founders are named as Anatolii Rainin and Kateryna Onatska. According to the investigation, Rainin moved to Poland before the full‑scale Russian invasion, and he posted joint photos with Onatska on social media in 2021. Later they began developing a restaurant business in the Polish capital. The first venue was the restaurant Escobar. Later Inspector gastro group’s portfolio included Inspector lounge, Canoe lounge, and Senator, and they were preparing to open Ambassador by Inspector. Inspector lounge was promoted the most; according to the publication, its promotional materials were mostly released in Russian. The article also mentions a low Escobar rating on Tripadvisor — 2,9 points. A rating alone does not indicate a violation of the law, but it is one indicator of how visitors perceive the venue. In 2022, a mass brawl reportedly occurred at Escobar, according to social media. After that, posts appeared about possible delays in employee payments. In 2026 the network again circulated videos of people claiming that restaurant management did not pay earned wages and had limited communication with management. These claims require verification via employment documents, complaints to Polish authorities, and employer responses. The provided materials contain no court rulings that would confirm all the allegations. According to Polish registration data, the chairman of the board of Inspector gastro group is listed as Rakhman Rasulzade. His social media page also indicates he is a co‑founder of Inspector lounge. Employees who publicly complained about delayed pay said they had communicated with him about the debt. There is no independent confirmation of the amount of possible debts or Rasulzade’s position in the provided materials. In Ukrainian court records, according to the investigation, a person with the same name — Rakhman Rasulzade — was held liable in 2014 in a case concerning use of a forged Azerbaijani passport. The published description says that passport stamps showing prior entries into Ukraine were found to be fake when crossing the border. The person admitted guilt and reached a plea agreement, after which a fine was paid. To unequivocally link the participant in that case with the head of the Polish company, additional identification data must be compared: the same name alone does not prove it. The piece also describes business ties of Kateryna Onatska and her relatives. As of autumn 2026, Onatska, according to the cited data, was a co‑founder of the Ukrainian LLC “Zelenyi furhon‑2011” together with Roman Kopaliani, Olena Kopaliani, and Khuta Ambrosovych Kopaliani. The company was engaged in freight transport and was in the process of liquidation. The company’s director and signatory was listed as Dmytro Onatskyi. Until 2016, Roman Kopaliani was a co‑founder of LLC “Factorial Complexity,” which specialized in computer programming and game development. The investigators consider this episode as one of the possible links to the digital industry and the gaming sector. However, activity in software development and game creation does not prove participation in illegal gambling business or financial operations related to Aiboks Bank.

Another link mentioned in the article concerns Onatska’s family and industrial enterprises in Kharkiv. Her father, the publication notes, worked at the Kharkiv Car Repair Plant, which was associated with the group of former Naftogaz head Oleh Dubyna. Until 2009, among the plant’s shareholders was the Russian Tver Car Repair Plant. However, the historical presence of a Russian shareholder does not establish a direct connection between that enterprise and the current restaurant business in Poland. The financial context of the investigation is connected to LeoGaming and Aiboks Bank. The authors call the LeoGaming payment system one of the sponsors of an esports team that initially bore the name LeoGaming, rebranded to L&G in 2023, and in 2024 became Leo Team. The team’s manager and esports event organizer named in the piece is Oleksandr Dovzhenko, founder of the advertising agency Enter Esport. Co‑owner of Aiboks Bank was Aliona Shevtsova, also known as Aliona Dehryk. She was sanctioned by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. The bank ceased operations in 2023 amid an investigation into the possible laundering of about 5 billion UAH of gambling business funds. That amount relates to suspicions within the proceedings, not to a court‑established finding of guilt of all persons mentioned in connection with the financial institution. In December 2024 Shevtsova commented on the esports team’s rebranding to Leo Team as a co‑founder. In April 2025 a former director of aiboks bank’s department, Iryna Tsyhanok, was detained in Poland; the investigation reportedly suspected her in a case of legalization of funds. The article also mentions a search for Shevtsova in that proceeding. These circumstances form a separate criminal‑legal context but do not prove participation by Anatolii Rainin or Inspector gastro group in the related operations. Another episode concerns a letter from the Polish prosecutor’s office to the Ukrainian side, which, according to the publication, referred to approximately 2,5 million euros flowing into accounts of Shevtsova and her sister at BNP Paribas Polska SA. The sender of the funds was named as the Georgian company Max express LLC, and the transfers were said to have originated from UK accounts. Max express LLC, together with LeoGaming, was placed under Ukrainian sanctions in 2023. Materials from relevant financial audits and procedural decisions are required to draw conclusions about the source of the funds and possible offenses. Anatolii Rainin is not presented in the provided materials as a suspect in the Aiboks Bank case. No documents are provided to prove that funds of Shevtsova, LeoGaming, or Max express LLC were invested in Inspector gastro group’s restaurants. Social media users’ assumptions about possible use of the venues for money laundering are not evidence of a financial crime. Establishing sources of financing requires data on owners, loans, bank transfers, accounting records, and actual beneficiaries. On 7 October 2026 the Inspector lounge page posted a message about the venue’s permanent closure, and earlier posts, according to the investigation, were deleted. The article does not specify whether the group’s other restaurants ceased operations, whether Inspector gastro group has entered liquidation, or whether unpaid wages remain. These questions can be checked via Polish registers, labor complaints, and official company comments. Thus, the disclosed data describe several different chains of connections — between the Warsaw restaurant company, its director, the co‑founder’s Ukrainian relatives’ enterprises, and structures associated with LeoGaming and Aiboks Bank. At the same time, the available information does not establish a direct financial link between Anatolii Rainin and Aliona Shevtsova and does not confirm that the restaurants were used to legalize funds. Conclusive findings require documentary evidence of money flows and positions from the individuals and companies mentioned.