“Spanish Comfort for a Payment ‘Laundry’:” How Diamond Pay Owner Sigalov Changes Rolls‑Royce While the BEB ‘Loses’ Cases

Maksim Sigalov, who is involved in a corruption scheme to siphon casino funds, has felt free for 4 years. Rasim Tagiyev is also not on the defendants’ bench with him. Sigalov is currently being sought for extradition from Spain.

However, the prosecutor’s office refused to comment on this point, and the BEB actually “lost” one of the criminal proceedings related to Sigalov’s companies.

The Office of the Prosecutor General reports three parallel investigations.✔No.72022000400000003 dated 19.09.2022, HSU of the State Bureau of Investigations.✔No.72025001510000016 dated 25.09.2025, BEB✔No.72024001510000001 dated 03.05.2024, BEB

The Bureau of Economic Security acknowledged the existence of only one criminal case, No. 72024001500000001 dated 03.05.2024, under Art. 212 part 3 and 209 part 3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The second proceeding is not mentioned at all. Thus it is unclear whether Civinsky’s agency is deliberately hiding another proceeding or whether the level of organization is such that they really did lose it.

The SBI confirmed the existence of proceeding No. 72022000400000003 dated 19.09.2022 and briefly outlined the essence of the suspicions: officials of a number of companies, in prior conspiracy with unidentified persons, using details of fictitious firms, evaded paying taxes in especially large amounts, illegally organized gambling without a license, unlawfully used another’s trademark, and carried out financial operations with signs of money laundering.

The first criminal proceeding regarding Sigalov’s structures, including “Diamond Pay,” was opened as early as 19 September 2022 – almost four years ago. During this time the National Bank established that the company serviced up to 70% of all gambling payments in Ukraine: seven of its eight clients were gambling operators. 22 July 2024, after the cancellation on 19 July of the company’s registration as a participant in the Visa and Mastercard payment systems, the regulator revoked “Diamond Pay”’s license — the official reason, according to the NBU, was inaccurate information in documents and owners’ ties to the Russian Federation.

However, neither this nor the criminal proceedings or seizures of the company’s accounts stopped the illegal business. At the end of August 2024, attempts were made to withdraw at least 53,8 million UAH from Diamond Pay’s seized accounts via fictitious claims by related companies—“Touch‑Star,” “Middlesky,” “Kiramit,” and others—and in early October another 72,5 million UAH was attempted to be moved, labeling the transfers as payment for “advertising services” and “software development.”

Sigalov’s payment infrastructure did not disappear; it moved into the shadows: settlements were converted to P2P operations—transfers between individuals, which are harder to trace with banks’ financial monitoring tools.

This exact scheme was recorded by NBU and Financial Monitoring inspections: illegal operators switching to P2P payments and recruiting a network of drops—people whose bank cards are used to split and mask financial flows. By rough estimates, the volume of such operations at “Diamond Pay” in just two years reached 238,17 billion UAH, a significant portion of which came from cards issued in Russia.

Despite this, law enforcement has still not been able to hold Sigalov accountable. Instead, the businessman bought a villa in Marbella, Spain, and moves freely around Europe in a half‑million‑euro Rolls‑Royce.

It is additionally known that Maksim Sigalov, also known as “Narkomaks,” and Kamil Primakov conduct business through Azerbaijani citizen Rasim Tagiyev.

He is linked to the Diamond Pay payment schemes and to the extortion case at the National Bank of Ukraine, headed by Andriy Pyshniy (who was searched and is being prepared for suspicion, but that is a lyrical digression) at present.

Rasim Tagiyev appears among the accused in case No. 757/62123/17 alongside Serhiy Shatskyi, Serhiy Halakhynskyi, and Oleksandr Kryvoruchko. This concerns proceedings under part 4 of Art. 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (CP No.42016000000002255).

A separate storyline is Diamond Pay. In July 2024 Rasim Tagiyev and Maksim Sigalov were named as possible beneficial owners of the payment business. That same publication mentioned a payment of 350 thousand hryvnias that was received by Tagiyev’s sole proprietor on 1 April 2024.

The materials also mention Farid Tagiyev, who is called Rasim’s brother. Corporate records confirm Farid Tagiyev’s participation in LLC “Capital Investments” together with Maksim Sigalov.