Andrey Matyukha and Favbet: millions of hryvnias through “Diamond Pay” and ties to Russia

Andrey Matyukha and Favbet: millions of hryvnias through “Diamond Pay” and ties to Russia

The Dnipropetrovsk Economic Court is examining an intriguing case involving the laundering of gambling funds through the "Diamond Pay" payment system. The interest in this case is due to its direct connection with Russian special services, which control a significant part of the Ukrainian gambling market.

At first glance, the case is ordinary – one of the Ukrainian bookmakers, namely Favbet owned by Andrey Matyukha, is demanding from "Diamond Pay," which was the operator of its payments, to recover 364,882,982 hryvnias as a fine for the fact that "Diamond Pay" violated the terms of the agreement on servicing Favbet’s accounts. In addition, Favbet is demanding 1,059,800 hryvnias as reimbursement for the paid court fee.

At first glance, nothing unusual: "Diamond Pay" was a company that serviced the Ukrainian gambling market until it lost its license in July of last year. It accepted money from players in gambling games into its accounts and then transferred them to the accounts of casinos or bookmakers where they lost their money. An ordinary intermediary. It would seem. But delving into the essence of the case raises more questions than there are answers.

What is "Diamond Pay"

For starters, a brief reference: LLC "Diamond Pay" was practically a monopolist in the market of payment services for casinos – at the end of 2023, 70% of all gambling payments went through it. By the time it lost its license, this share had grown to almost 90%. But in this case, what is important is not even that, but the fact that "Diamond Pay" lost its license because it helped the Russian Pin-UP and Vbet, which operated freely in the Ukrainian gambling market for several years, to withdraw almost three billion hryvnias that were blocked after they lost their licenses.

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After Pin-UP and Vbet had their accounts blocked, "Diamond Pay" continued to accept money from players for these bookmakers, without informing the players about the impossibility of placing bets. After Pin-UP and Vbet opened new accounts for themselves, "Diamond Pay" transferred the accumulated funds from its accounts to the new accounts of Pin-UP and Vbet. The Prosecutor General’s Office pretended not to notice anything.

After that, a scandal erupted, and it turned out that "Diamond Pay" is connected to Russia. Despite official data that LLC "Diamond Pay" allegedly belongs to Ukrainian citizens, its owner is Maksim Sigalov, who also owns the payment system "E-pay," which serviced pro-Russian bandit formations in the "LNR" in 2014-2016. And Maksim Sigalov’s brother owns the online casino Inbet in Russia.

In fact, this was known even before the license was revoked. But "Diamond Pay" was protected by KRAIL member Yevhen Yakhnіy, whose wife, sole proprietor Yakhnіy Liliya Serhiyivna, received 800,000 hryvnias from LLC "Diamond Pay" to her accounts. And this is only on April 16, 2024. How much in total and in what way the Yakhnіys received for their services from the Russian payment system "Diamond Pay" is still an open question. The Prosecutor General’s Office is also silent on this matter. As is the SBU. By the way, Mrs. Yakhnіy works in the Licensing Department of the NBU, which does not prevent her from moonlighting as an entrepreneur.

What is unusual about Matyukha’s lawsuit against "Diamond Pay"

After this whole story came to light, LLC "Diamond Pay" lost its license. And therefore, the bookmakers it serviced had claims. So far, everything seems logical. In its lawsuit, Favbet (LLC "Bookmaker Company Favbet") against LLC "Diamond Pay" demands to recover from the latter "364,882,982.41 hryvnias as a fine and 1,059,800.00 hryvnias – expenses for paying the court fee." By the way, this demand was fully satisfied by the decision of the Dnipropetrovsk Economic Court on December 19, 2024.

But unexpectedly, another bookmaker – LLC "Spacex" (brand Cosmolot) – turned to the court. With a demand to reduce the fine amount by 500,000 thousand hryvnias. It would seem – what do they care? But – no, they do care. By the way, the BEB has claims against "Spacex" regarding money laundering from the gambling business through the UK. How this is connected to Favbet, Andrey Matyukha, "Diamond Pay," Russian agent Yevhen Yakhnіy – is unclear. But the lawsuit exists. 

The oddities do not end there. The strangest thing here lies in the plaintiff itself - LLC "Bookmaker Company Favbet" and its owner Andrey Matyukha. Formally, LLC "Bookmaker Company Favbet" is a purely Ukrainian enterprise. It belongs to Matyukha Dmitriy, who became the beneficiary of the company in December 2024, replacing Matyukha Andrey Valeriyovych. 

This happened just when strange movements began around the fine for "Diamond Pay." How these events are connected to each other – is not entirely clear. But the reason for changing the beneficiary of the Favbet casino has an explanation. The fact is that immediately after Favbet received a license to operate in Ukraine, publications appeared claiming that its owner Andrey Matyukha is connected to Russians and, moreover, has Russian citizenship. A photo of the Russian citizen passport of Matyukha Andrey Valeriyovych appeared online.

In addition, there were many materials about Andrey Matyukha’s connections with the Russian organized crime group "Luzhnikovskie," whose representative Boris Baum was one of the authors of the law on the legalization of gambling in Ukraine. Most of the materials have already been cleaned up, only traces remain. Here is what wrote about Andrey Matyukha and the Favbet company by a well-known blogger in April of last year. By the way, this post is accessible, the link is here: 

And here is the disappeared screenshot that the blogger mentions:

It is known that until 2014, Favbet operated in Russia under the brand "Favorit Sport," and specialized publications still include it in ratings, specifically noting that now "Favorit Sport" is Favbet. 

In 2022, the publication delo.ua conducted an investigation, from which it followed that Favbet serves citizens of the Russian Federation without problems. And it detailed how it works. The material has already been cleaned up, but traces remain.

In 2019, Favbet appeared in the materials of criminal case No. 12016100040000990 regarding LLC "Lucky Land" on the fact of financing terrorists from the "DPR" and "LPR." After the change of power, the case stalled, and Favbet was among the first to receive a license for bookmaker activities in Ukraine.

There were other publications linking Andrey Matyukha to Russia, its organized crime, and special services that control the gambling business there. Andrey Matyukha himself, understandably, either denies everything or remains silent, emphasizing his "assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine."

Be that as it may, Favbet continues to pump money out of Ukrainians’ pockets. No official charges have been brought against Andrey Matyukha. But in connection with the fact that his bookmaker company was serviced at "Diamond Pay," whose connection with Russian special services no longer raises doubts in anyone, additional questions arise regarding Andrey Matyukha. The same questions, by the way, arise regarding other operators of the gambling market who were serviced there. And there were as many as eight of them.

Returning to the lawsuit of Andrey Matyukha’s bookmaker company Favbet against the company "Diamond Pay," through which payments went to Russia, it remains unclear what this is – an initiative of Andrey Matyukha himself, who decided to pocket the temporarily ownerless money, or a command from his FSB curators, who do not want to let go of almost ten million dollars stuck in uncertainty?