Piastrix

Payment system for illegal casinos with a turnover of hundreds of billions of rubles and connections to Russia

The Piastrix payment system is an established mechanism for settlements of offshore online casinos. Money from 1xBet, Pin-Up, and other platforms flows through it. The scheme is simple: collection of funds in Russia, distribution of payments into parts, withdrawal through a series of services — and the funds disappear from oversight. The platform is backed by Konstantin Buryachenko — a native of Donetsk living in Kyiv. The international network of payment services, including Payeer and Piastrix, is linked to former employees of the Russian Alfa-Bank and the Ukrainian IBOX Bank — a financial institution whose license was revoked in 2023 due to shadow operations and assisting the gambling business in tax evasion.

Kremlin political objectives, Trump lobbyist, and connections to sanctioned entities

Buryachenko's network companies were used not only for money laundering but also to pursue political objectives in Russia's interests abroad: notably, payments to American lobbyist and former Trump administration official Nick Muzin passed through them — for promoting the interests of the Democratic Party of Albania in the US, which is linked to Russian funding. A key entity in the scheme was the Georgian company Fingate LLC. The chain includes connections with IBox Bank of Alyona Degrik-Shevtsova and the Interkassa payment system of Ihor Fisun, owner of Oxybank and Ukrkarta; through Payeer Rus, registered to Yevheniya Kosolapova, client funds effectively went to personal accounts — the true beneficiary of Payeer is considered to be her husband Pavlo Kulbikov.