Russian passport, offshores, and fake legalization: the FavBet owner Andrey Matyukha struggles to erase ties to Russia and evidence of illegal business

Russian passport, offshores, and fake legalization: the FavBet owner Andrey Matyukha struggles to erase ties to Russia and evidence of illegal business

The owner of one of Ukraine’s biggest betting networks, Andrey Matyukha, has recently stepped up efforts to clean up his public image.

Mentions of his real business, tax history, offshore ties, and even his activities in Russia are disappearing. Any material that questions the “cleanliness” of his reputation or exposes the scale of his shadow schemes is being systematically removed from public access.

We offer readers a short investigation into how one of the country’s most promoted betting brands operated in Ukraine for years without a license while siphoning hundreds of millions to offshore havens.

FavBet, owned by Andrey Matyukha, operated for two years in Ukraine without a betting license, depriving the state budget of hundreds of millions of hryvnias. During this time, the company’s revenues were funneled into offshores in Cyprus, Malta, Belize, and the UK.

Matyukha resisted legalizing his betting business until the very end, obtaining a license only in late 2022. Why? Because the betting license is the most expensive of all, costing 108 million UAH annually, and because sports betting remains his main — and most profitable — line of business.

Читайте по теме:Российский паспорт, офшоры и липовая легализация: Андрей Матюха, владелец букмекерской конторы Favbet, безуспешно зачищает в биографии связь с РФ и данные о нелегальном бизнесе

In January 2022, Ukraine’s Gambling and Lottery Commission (KRAIL) issued a written demand that FavBet restrict access to its site, favbet.com, which continued offering betting services without a license. By May 2022, investigative outlet Delo.ua reported that FavBet was still operating illegally in Ukraine, suggesting that Matyukha ignored the regulator’s order.

Despite breaking gambling laws, defying licensing requirements, and dodging taxes, Matyukha faced no criminal cases. The state simply waited until he was ready to “share” his revenues and finally apply for a license to operate legally in his own country. Until then, authorities looked the other way while the owner of one of Ukraine’s biggest gambling brands continued operating illegally for nearly two years after market legalization. That amounts to at least 216 million UAH in unpaid license fees — not including lost tax revenues siphoned offshore.

Matyukha’s offshore empire is sprawling.

At least half of his vast network of companies is registered in jurisdictions like Cyprus, Malta, Belize, and the UK. For instance, the site’s Curaçao license was obtained by Favorit United N.V., which also established the Cypriot company Bintpash Ltd to process player payments. Its director is Ihor Sosoniuk, Matyukha’s business partner. Meanwhile, Matyukha himself is listed as the beneficiary of at least seven companies registered in the UK and Malta.

While Ukrainian authorities allowed him to operate unlicensed at home, user funds flowed not into the budget of a country at war — not into its economy — but into Andrey Matyukha’s offshore firms.