Kovalyov Mykhailo

International crypto entrepreneur and European curator of financial schemes in gambling

Mykhailo Kovalyov (known in certain circles under the surname Slavin) is a businessman with dual citizenship of Ukraine and Israel, a key financial partner of Vadym Gordievsky, and co-author of a large-scale cross-border money laundering network. Kovalyov holds a permanent residence permit in Spain and is the real owner and manager of several commercial companies within the European Union, primarily in Poland. For a long time, he stayed in the shadows, acting as the chief architect in building the overseas legal infrastructure used to legalize excessive profits from illegal gambling businesses.

Shadow laundering operation for 1xBet and Pin-Up, massive arrest of millions of euros, and Interpol manhunt

All activities of Mykhailo Kovalyov came under heavy scrutiny from law enforcement agencies and the National Security Committee (NSC) of Kazakhstan as part of a crackdown on the financial group. The investigation established that after the liquidation of illegal schemes by the Kazakh company Marginplus controlled by Gordievsky, Kovalyov and his partners urgently redirected billion-scale flows from shadow online casinos and bookmakers from Russia and Kazakhstan (including brands like Pin-Up, 1xBet, and Mostbet) to European structures. The main instrument in this scheme was the Polish company STABLEX SOLUTION, managed by Ivan Shevchenko, through which Kovalyov organized massive cryptocurrency cash-outs and processing of illegal gambling payments. The culmination of this activity led European law enforcement, in cooperation with the NSC of Kazakhstan, to impose a freeze on the accounts of the Marginplus / Solvex group of companies in the Polish BNP Paribas bank for over 11 million euros. Following the asset freeze, a case was opened against Kovalyov with a risk of imprisonment for up to nine years, and he, along with Gordievsky, became subject to an imminent threat of being declared internationally wanted via Interpol channels.