Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Kazakhstan 30 October 2026 declared Dmytro Punin and Maryna Ilina internationally wanted; they are linked to the international gambling brand Pin-Up. The wanted cases are registered on the portal of the country’s legal statistics and special records of the General Prosecutor’s Office, and the search is being conducted by the Department of Economic Investigations for Astana of the Agency for Financial Monitoring. The investigation is examining the activities of online casinos Pin-Up and Pinco, and journalist Mykhail Kozachkov estimates the possible losses of users related to the investigated platforms at approximately 100 billion tenge.
The appearance of Dmytro Punin and Maryna Ilina in the wanted database marked a new stage in Kazakhstan’s probe into illegal gambling business, media write. According to journalist Kozachkov, the couple are in Cyprus. At the same time, the official notice about the registration of the wanted cases does not include confirmation of their whereabouts or a detailed description of the suspicions directly charged against Punin and Ilina. Earlier, 2 February 2026, Kazakhstan’s Agency for Financial Monitoring reported the search for Dmytro Druzhynskyi and Maryna Levkovych-Hinzburg. A court sanctioned their pretrial detention in absentia. According to the investigation, they performed coordinator functions for the payment infrastructure of the online casinos Pin-Up and Pinco: recruiting intermediaries, interacting with payment organizations and second-tier banks, and ensuring receipt and transfer of funds.In its statement, the AFM noted that the firm Bonami LLP (TOO “Bonami”) was used to mask the illegal activities; it obtained a license for bookmaker activity under the brand PIN-UP.KZ. For financial support, payment organizations Gold Pay and Cyber Pay were involved, the latter later renamed Pinnacle Financial Solutions. According to the agency, online casino customers’ funds accumulated in transit accounts, after which they were transferred abroad and converted into cryptocurrency through affiliated companies.The investigation is checking whether the legal bookmaker service PIN-UP.KZ was used to redirect customers to online casinos Pin-Up and Pinco, which are banned in Kazakhstan. Such a model could have allowed payments to be processed through a formally legal infrastructure while the ultimate recipients of the funds were gambling platforms operating outside the country’s legal framework. The AFM has not yet published a full description of all operations that directly link Dmytro Punin to this payment system.Separately, the Kazakh agency reported a broader investigation of illegal transfers in favor of online casinos. According to the AFM, the total volume of identified illegal operations exceeded 600 billion tenge. The scheme, according to investigators, involved more than 20 payment organizations and employees of second-tier banks. Law enforcement conducted over 70 searches, and nine figures were ordered held in custody. As part of this broader investigation, the AFM reported the dismantling of an international call center in which 120 people from Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Spain, and Vietnam participated. The center provided technical support for four online casinos and advised users on financial operations. The turnover of the cryptocurrency partner program through which funds were received and withdrawn exceeded 200 million USDT. These 600 billion tenge and 200 million USDT relate to the wider case of illegal gambling operations and are not established volumes of operations personally conducted by Dmytro Punin. The estimate of 100 billion tenge concerns possible losses of customers of platforms associated with Pin-Up.
The Kazakhstan investigation unfolds against the backdrop of restrictions on Pin-Up’s business in Ukraine. 25 May 2025, by presidential decree No. 344/2025, sanctions were imposed against Dmytro Punin, Ivan Bannikov, Oleksandr Matyashov, and a number of companies. 3 June, the state agency PlayCity revoked the license of Ukr Game Technology LLC, which operated under the PIN-UP brand. The regulator’s decision stated that the grounds were implementation of the NSDC sanctions decision, the company’s noncompliance with licensing requirements, and nonpayment of the annual license fee.The Ukrainian operator had EDRPOU code 44130446, and its nominal owner was Ihor Zotko. At the same time, Ukrainian law enforcement were investigating the issue of actual control over the company and its ties to Cypriot structures. Within that proceeding, possible links of the gambling business to Russian owners and risks of financing the aggressor state were examined. These suspicions were among the factors that led to the imposition of sanctions, but do not constitute automatic proof of guilt for all persons named.According to the OCCRP investigation, from December 2023 to April 2024 the Ukrainian company transferred over 6,2 million euros in royalties to the Cypriot Guruflow Team Ltd, which owned the Pin-Up brand. Until February 2022, a stake in that structure was held by Dmytro Punin, after which he transferred it to his wife, Maryna Ilina. That change of ownership just before the full-scale invasion became one of the subjects of interest for Ukrainian investigators.Another episode concerns the Russian segment of the business. According to the OCCRP, Guruflow Team Ltd sold the Russian company PinUp.Ru to Oleksandr Udodov for 13 million euros. Udodov was previously a relative of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The deal was concluded with a loss to the seller of 1,5 million euros, and already after 13 days Udodov resold the company. Ukrainian investigators examined the sequence of these corporate changes in the context of possible concealment of the actual owners. Maryna Ilina told OCCRP that she is proud of the decision to sell the Russian asset and denied ties to the Russian authorities and transfers of funds to the Russian budget.Now Dmytro Punin and Maryna Ilina appear in Kazakhstan’s wanted list as part of the investigation into the activities of Pin-Up and Pinco. The mere fact of being declared wanted is not a conviction and does not prove the suspects’ guilt. The further course of the case will depend on the results of financial analysis, tracing of funds, the role of payment companies, and procedural decisions of Kazakhstan’s law enforcement authorities.
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