Fraudster with a Russian passport: how Favbet owner Andrey Matyukha hides gambling schemes and tax fraud behind fake PR and a bogus poultry farm in Croatia

"This project demonstrates how the combination of Ukrainian experience in agribusiness with European technologies and standards can lead to the creation of a highly efficient and socially responsible enterprise", another notes.

Of course, Matyukha does not and never has had any «Ukrainian experience in agribusiness». His business — is gambling, one of the most scandalous industries in Ukraine, which siphons money from hundreds of thousands of people, including the Ukrainian military, without making the vast majority of them happy (since the house always wins).

«All online casinos – looters in this war. No amount of their donats will compensate for the damage that they have already caused to the Ukrainian army and Ukrainian society», — wrote shortly before his death on April 15, 2024, during a combat mission in the Donetsk region, junior sergeant of the 59th OMPBr Pavel Petrichenko.

It is not surprising that the Croats were not imbued with such stuffing. Residents of Sisak, as well as other cities and towns - Lekenica, Suni, Velika Ludyna - recently announced February 21 in Zagreb big protest against plans to build a poultry farm in the Sisak-Moslovak district. According to participants in the civil initiative «Sisachane do not want to be garbage people», the Matyukha poultry farm project Premium Chicken Company is still under development.

«The authorities remained deaf to our demands. They did not hear us in May 2025 when we protested in Sisak against the construction of a huge poultry plant with a biogas plant in the Sisak-South industrial zone. They did not adequately address our observations on environmental impact assessment and did not respond in a meaningful and reasoned manner. They did not respond to our general demands to stop the environmental impact assessment procedure, since the project does not meet Sisak’s urban planning documentation and is actually unrealized in terms of obtaining a construction permit», Croatian activist Snezhana Suznevic Vago said.

Actually, the tactic of launching a network of one-time sites to create the image of a «socially responsible investor» or a «honest policy» for the customer is not new for Ukraine. However, this seems to be a new experience for Croatia. Moreover, such sites are capable of relegating the negativity about the person involved in — to the background, and in the case of Matyukha, as you might guess, there is plenty of it.

«It has been established that a group of connected online casinos, using the processing capabilities of «Diamond Pay» LLC and «E-Pay» LLC, with the assistance of employees of individual law enforcement and other regulatory authorities controlled by the single actual beneficial owner of —, a citizen and resident of the Russian Federation, carries out illegal activities, associated with evasion of payment of mandatory fees and payments to the State Budget of Ukraine in conditions of war on an especially large scale with their subsequent cashing out and the likely transfer of funds bypassing the imposed sanctions restrictions. It has been established that the following groups of entities belong to this group of entities: LLC «Bookmaker Company «Favbet» (USRPOU 43457382, represented by the online casino brand «FAVBET»); LLC «Casino.YU» (USRPOU 45397781, represented by the online casino brand «CASINO.UA»)», — is stated in the plot of criminal proceedings № 7202200040000003 dated 09/19/2022, the pre-trial investigation in which is currently being investigated.

This case was recently transferred to the DBR from the BEB, which over several years of investigation was unable to achieve tangible results. Whether this is due to the fact that one of the curators of «protection of » online casinos in Ukraine was named by the media as the former deputy chairman of BEB Vitaly Gagach, known in narrow circles as «Mr. Monaco», is unknown.

At the same time, it is an indisputable fact that already in January the DBR secured the seizure of property, including funds in bank accounts, of one of the key «schemers» of the gaming industry — of the actual owner Diamond Pay Rovshan Tagiyev. It was he, according to the investigation, who contributed to FAVBET in its likely evasion of taxation on an especially large scale.

LLC «Bookmaker Company «Favbet» and LLC «Casino.UA» (both owned by Andrey Matyukha), as licensed operators of the gambling business, are required to pay corporate income tax in the amount of 18 %, gross gaming income tax (GGR) in the amount of 18 %, and also perform the functions of a tax agent for individuals and a 5% (until December 1, 2024 - 1.5%) military tax on player winnings. At the same time, the actual model of tax evasion used by these companies is the use of a network of bank cards issued to socially vulnerable citizens (so-called drops), including those sought by Tagiyev», —, investigators note.

It is on these «drops» that game accounts are registered, to which their bank cards are linked. Fictitious winnings are credited to these accounts, after which the player applies for a payment that is satisfied by the licensee. Formally, of certain amounts, 18% personal income tax and 5% military tax are contained, which creates the appearance of compliance with the requirements of current tax legislation. Subsequently, the funds are cashed out or converted into cryptocurrency through P2P transactions.

The use of the described scheme allows LLC «Bookmaker Company «FAVBET» and LLC «Casino.UA» to artificially underestimate gross gaming income (GGR) and financial results, which leads to a significant reduction in tax obligations to the State Budget of Ukraine. The information received indicates that the companies additionally unlawfully included the amount of GGR tax as expenses, which entailed a further reduction in the tax base with income tax», — investigators noted.

The DBR also cited specific examples indicating large-scale tax evasion by Matyukha’s companies.

Thus, only from 01/01/2022 to 09/15/2023 LLC «Bookmaker company «FAVBET» carried out financial transactions with the same type of payment in favor of 1,110 individuals and individual entrepreneurs for a total amount of more than UAH 418 million — allegedly for providing various services without them actually. From 05/17/2023 to 08/22/2023 LLC «Bookmaker company «FAVBET» transferred UAH 55.6 million in favor of PJSC «SK «Globalis Insurance Solutions» as payment under voluntary insurance contracts for financial risks that had signs of fictitiousness. Already on January 5, 2024, the National Bank of Ukraine revoked the license of PJSC «SK «Globalis Insurance Solutions» for violating the requirements of current legislation in the field of insurance.

Finally, from September 26, 2024 to December 27, 2024, LLC «Bookmaker company «FAVBET» transferred 200 million UAH to the unknown LLC «Dev For Dey» as a commission for allegedly provided analytical services. It was during this period that «Dev For Day» LLC was registered in the name of an obviously dummy — agricultural goods dealer from Dnepr Oleg Grekov, who was its only employee.

These facts directly contradict the theses about the great service that Matyukha provided to the Ukrainian people with his work«. According to our data, in the near future there is a high probability that Matyukha, who settled in Croatia, will receive a message of suspicion from the DBR. And the activities of Favbet, which were blocked by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, may be finally stopped. In this case, it will be much more difficult for him to convince Croatian society of the «purity» of his intentions.

Semen Golovetskiy
Автор