There are few certainties in a football game: a ball, twenty-two players, a referee, and an endless supply of betting and gambling sponsors. An investigation by Investigate Europe and other partners reveals the significant influence of the betting industry over the “beautiful game”.
An analysis in a cross-border collaboration, including Amphora Media, has uncovered how the majority of Europe’s leading football teams & leagues, including Malta’s, now partner with betting & gambling companies.
Reporters’ data analysis revealed that two-thirds of teams (296 of 442) in the 31 premier competitions across the EU and the UK signed at least one betting partner for the 2024/25 season. One in three has a front-of-shirt sponsor. In addition, almost half of all leagues rely on a gambling or lottery title sponsor.
This includes Malta, with reporters uncovering how close to a tenth of Malta’s top-flight teams have a gambling sponsor. Amphora Media has also previously reported how Vbet, the partner of the Malta Premier League and Malta National Team, has been implicated in an alleged illegal betting network.
The investigation also found that 105 companies – operating 140 brands – have deals with football clubs, and many are based in Malta. Football sponsors include industry heavyweights Kindred, Kaizen and Entain, and well-known brands such as Unibet, Betano, Betway and Bwin. Others are offshore operators in Curaçao and Isle of Man, or across Asia.
However, the investigation reveals that a number of teams are able to circumvent betting advertising restrictions with ‘gateway’ sponsors – and campaigners say agreements risk pushing more vulnerable individuals into addiction. Clubs have found ways to skirt restrictions by using brands’ entertainment of charitable logos on their kits.
From the Premier League to Serie A and La Liga: Betting sponsors are impossible to miss
In Italy, the 2018 “Dignity Decree” prohibited any form of direct or indirect advertising related to gambling. Still, advertising on shirts continued this season, driven by Inter (Betsson.sport), Parma (AdmiralBet.news) and Lecce (BetItalyPay).
At least two clubs, including AC Milan, have struck deals with companies which lack domestic licences but still target local audiences. In July 2024, the club struck a deal with Boomerang Bet despite the brand operating without a license, a legal requirement for the Italian betting market, reporters found. Neither responded to requests for comment.
Italy’s sports minister acknowledged in March 2023 that the ban was being bypassed. In response to a parliamentary inquiry, Andrea Abodi said it was “hypocritical to ban the right to bet” while still allowing “parallel communication by the same sites, which simply promote a web address that inevitably leads to gambling.”
The global appeal of the British Premier League has made its clubs prime targets. Eleven teams have a gambling logo on their 2024/25 shirts, the highest proportion among Europe’s top five leagues, including the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A. With a voluntary ban on front-of-shirt sponsors coming from the 2026/27 season, clubs must diversify. Some logos are moving to shorts, sleeves, and training kits.
Betting brands spent around $135 million on shirt deals in the English top flight this season, according to Global Data. Among them are several opaque Asia-facing operators, the latest in a string of little-known betting sponsors. They are attractive options for smaller teams, offering up to £10 million a year, and clubs are desperate to maximise revenues, says Kieran Maguire, football finance expert and lecturer at the University of Liverpool.
“I don’t think there’s any desire by clubs to do due diligence, provided they get paid. And they’re prepared to not look too closely because they’re under pressure,” Maguire said. “You’ve got the owner screaming at the chief executive who’s screaming at the commercial director: ‘Get the best deal that you can. We’re losing money’. And all the clubs are losing money.”
‘Betting companies exploited my passion for football’: The real impact betting sponsors can have on addiction
“Betting companies exploited my passion for football to hook me in and completely change my life,” Thomas Melchior, a former German bank employee who started gambling after watching a betting advertisement during a Champions League match, told our partners, Investigate Europe.
After 13 years of betting, Melchior had accumulated €800,000 of debt and in 2019 was sentenced to prison after being found guilty of various fraud and other offences, which he said were a means to sustain his gambling addiction.
At first, when he was winning, his account was flagged for potential gambling addiction, and his betting limits were restricted. But when he started losing five-figure sums every month, no one banned him. Instead, he was assigned a personal VIP consultant and received monthly rewards.
“I ‘won’ a trip to London for the Premier League match between Chelsea and Liverpool, complete with flights and VIP tickets. It was a ‘prize’ for my customer loyalty. Or rather, for my gambling addiction, for which I was regularly rewarded,” said Melchior, who was released from prison in 2022 and has since supported Unsere Kurve, a German fan group working to end gambling advertising in football.
According to The Big Step campaign, which also aims to end gambling advertising and sponsorships in football, marketing through football works to normalise betting and “keep the conveyor belt of customers going”.
It is estimated that around a fifth of the UK population is directly or indirectly harmed by gambling, but the main lobby group for the UK betting industry claims that there is no evidence supporting a link between sports advertising and problem gambling.
Charles Livingstone, a member of the World Health Organisation’s Expert Group on Gambling and Gambling Disorder, says research clearly shows that the more exposure you have to gambling ads, the more likely you are to gamble.
Magisterial inquiries have been one of Malta’s few avenues for citizens to seek justice and hold those in power accountable. A new bill threatens to close that door – and recent data shows private citizen-filed inquiries account for just 0.3% of all magisterial inquiries.
In response to a series of parliamentary questions by MP Amanda Spiteri Grech, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard revealed that only 25 magisterial inquiries were initiated by private citizens between 2017 and 2024, a fraction of the 7,650 carried out by magistrates & initiated by authorities.
Private citizen-filed inquiries have led to major investigations and, in some instances, criminal charges into significant scandals, including the VGH/Steward case, 17 Black, the Panama Papers, Electrogas, and the Mozura wind farm deal in Montenegro.
Bill 125 would drastically limit that ability. It has courted significant controversy and was introduced amid fresh requests for inquiries into Prime Minister Robert Abela’s cabinet members. Critics say that the bill has been rushed through parliament and that the government has been unwilling to engage in public dialogue.
A vote on the second reading of the Bill will be taken later today. The committee stage will follow, and a final vote will be taken after its third and final reading.
Data from 2017-2024
Under the proposed law, citizens must present evidence to the police, not the magistrate, and follow stricter guidelines. This would undermine accountability, especially if authorities fail to act.
The Bill removes the ‘reasonable suspicion’ standard, introduces a stricter evidentiary requirement, and places magisterial inquiries under the supervision of the Attorney General, which could compromise judicial independence.
The government argues that the Bill aligns with recommendations made by the Venice Commission, which stressed it should “not abandon Malta’s legal traditions but evolve to provide more effective checks and balances than those currently in place.”
PL MEP Alex Agius Saliba and Minister Attard travelled to Brussels for a series of meetings, including former LIBE Committee Chair Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar. Agius Saliba has reportedly begun circulating a government-produced ‘fact sheet’ about Bill 125.
The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation has urged the European Parliament’s Socialist and Democrats (S&D) group to retract their support for the proposed reform.
Source: DOI
Bill 125 Slashes Citizens’ Right to Seek Justice
Besides eliminating direct citizen petitions and imposing stricter evidentiary requirements, Bill 125 mandates individuals to wait 6 months for police inaction for an initial request for a magisterial inquiry.
A two-year deadline is being introduced, after which all collected evidence would be passed onto the Attorney General, regardless of the inquiry’s status. Given the court’s long-standing issue with delays, this could result in a premature conclusive status for incomplete investigations.
Another major reform is the introduction of penalties for abuse. If a magistrate determines that the inquiry initiated by a citizen against the accused was “unfounded, frivolous, vexatious or abusive of the judicial process”, the same citizen would be held responsible for covering costs.
These expenses could run into the millions—for context, the inquiry into Egrant cost over €1.2 million, while the Vitals exceeded €10 million.
A German man who lost €245,000 won a legal challenge against a blacklisted casino site.
Malta’s Bill 55 under the microscope for shielding gambling industry from law enforcement.
Soft2bet, a gambling software provider, has connections in Malta – from Economy Minister Silvio Schembri inaugurating its offices to its global brand founder serving as one of the key speakers at the SiGMA conference in Malta. However, a cross-border investigation by Investigate Europe and its partners, including Amphora Media, has revealed that entities within Soft2bet founders’ corporate network have registered numerous blacklisted casinos and betting sites – while gambling addicts struggle to find justice.
Soft2bet’s founder, Uri Poliavich, is overseeing an empire that turned a €66.8 million profit in 2023 from Soft2bet alone and has handed him a €57.8 million dividend. Corporate documents reveal that he spent some of his wealth on real estate in Cyprus, Prague and Sofia, as well as over €1.3 million worth of cars. In Malta, Poliavich’s network has a licence to target players via Maltix Limited, owned via entities in Cyprus.
Investigate Europe and partners have revealed that company filings, website domain and trademark data show that Poliavich – named “leader of the year” at an industry summit in 2024 – has partly relied on myriad blacklisted casinos and sports betting sites to help build up his empire.
Poliavich did not personally respond to reporters’ questions, but Soft2bet denied wrongdoing. “Our operations are conducted in full adherence to all applicable laws, regulations, and licensing conditions in every jurisdiction where we are authorised to operate,” the company’s statement read.
Quad Towers, where Soft2bet is located.
‘Casinos stole my life’: German’s legal challenge against Soft2bet-linked sites
Felix (not his real name), a middle-aged German man struggling after a difficult divorce, found himself drawn to gambling. He took out nine loans and cancelled his pension plans to fuel his gambling addiction, and remembers losing €245,000 on a website called Wazamba. But instead of flagging potential addiction, the website granted him “VIP status”, a loyalty programme where high spenders get a personal manager.
“I spent every free minute on my mobile phone,” Felix told Investigate Europe.
“I could play and then call them to get some money back to continue playing, they always give you credit straight away,”Those who run these casinos have stolen my life.”
Investigate Europe can reveal that Wazamba is part of a vast network of blacklisted gambling sites connected to Soft2bet by corporate ownership and the UBO. In a statement sent to Investigate Europe, Soft2bet denied any wrongdoing.
Fortunately for Felix, he pursued Wazamba in the German courts. At the time, Soft2bet appears to have discreetly managed the casino via two shell corporations, Rabidi and Araxio Development. In 2022, Rabidi turned over €343 million. The registrant’s phone number for one Rabidi-created URL currently shows as Poliavich’s WhatsApp number. Both companies were based in Curaçao, the Caribbean tax haven notorious for its lax gambling regulations.
See Follow the Money investigation on Curaçao here
German judges ruled in 2023 that Rabidi, unlicensed in Germany, owed Felix all his losses back. Two years later, he is still waiting for the money, as are several other creditors.
Both Rabidi and Araxio were declared bankrupt in Curaçao following a number
of similar lawsuits. Their assets, however, were safely relocated before the judgements. What was not known at the time was their relation to Soft2bet.
Investigate Europe and its partners addressed 25 questions to Soft2bet and Poliavich. In a statement, the company said: “Soft2bet is a leading online casino and sportsbook software provider, holding various licenses worldwide. As a fully licensed and strictly regulated company, we take our compliance obligations and regulatory responsibilities with the utmost seriousness.
“We categorically deny the baseless allegations and misleading insinuations presented in your email. Any suggestion that Soft2bet engages in improper activities is entirely false, defamatory, and without merit. We reject the attempt to damage our reputation through unfounded accusations or irresponsible reporting.”
But data from Similarweb, a web traffic aggregator, show that the unauthorised websites attract millions of visits each month in Europe, with Germany providing the majority of players. And some of the blacklisted brands traced back to Soft2bet, like Wazamba, have been owned and operated by the company directly. Others were created by the group on behalf of customers as “turnkey casinos”.
Boomerang: AC Milan’s Betting Partner Operates Blacklisted Sites
Boomerang is one of the latter. It received an award at the latest SiGMA World conference.
Boomerang has been classified as unauthorised in at least six countries – including Italy, Spain and Greece. Regardless, Boomerang managed to strike a deal with AC Milan in July 2024 as its official regional betting partner in Europe. Boomerang has been blacklisted by Italian authorities since at least March 2025.
In spite of being blacklisted, Its URLs recorded 17 million visits in the last three months of 2024: 3 million came from Spain, 1 million from Greece and nearly 500,000 from Italy. Over 7 million visits were from Germany, where Boomerang doesn’t have the necessary licences.
The trademark’s owners are four Russian nationals who publicly acknowledge their connections to Boomerang and other betting sites. Corporate filings show they live in Cyprus and Berlin, where the two also set up a real estate company.
Investigate Europe tried to contact them via Boomerang, but they did not reply to requests for comments. AC Milan, who is in a partnership with Boomerang, did not answer questions either.
As well as web traffic data, proof that blacklisted websites tied to Soft2bet are vying for European gamblers can be found in the group’s marketing materials.
The Curaçao licence which Soft2bet casinos held did not allow them to target a European audience. But it did afford them much-needed secrecy.
Authorities have blamed the two Curaçao shell companies without linking them to Soft2bet. Both Rabidi and Araxio received court judgments in Austria and Germany ordering them to reimburse players. In Spain, Rabidi received a €5 million fine in connection to 25 “allegedly illegal” casinos. The Spanish regulator said the penalty remains to be paid.
Evidence that Soft2bet’s UBO’s hand is behind them lies in Cyprus, where the company keeps its top holdings. Soft2bet founder and CEO Poliavich controlled Araxio directly via Outono Ltd, a Cypriot entity which served as Soft2bet’s top holding until recently. Rabidi belonged to a close partner, Denys Butko, a Ukrainian national living on the Mediterranean island.
The two men rarely appear together in official paperwork, but their friendship is obvious. Social media pictures show them spending time together with family in Ukraine. Poliavich even picked Butko as the director of one entity he used to buy a $475,000 flat in Panama City.
Butko did not reply to requests for comments.
Between 2017 and 2024, Soft2bet’s founder and Butko used Araxio and Rabidi to establish nearly 550 casino URLs. Company accounts suggest Araxio owned software rights, and Rabidi was a gambling operator.
From 2021, as Rabidi and Araxio kept popping up on European blacklists, Poliavich called in Butko to reorganise his affairs. Butko’s Cypriot outfit, Interpava, played a key role in the reshuffle.
First, Interpava, which already owned Rabidi, took over Araxio while its software rights were moved to another Poliavich undertaking. Then, Interpava incorporated a third Curacao vehicle, which assumed Rabidi’s casino operations and local gambling authorities granted it a licence.
Interpava’s shares were finally transferred to another collaborator working with Butko. By the time Araxio and Rabidi were declared bankrupt in 2023 and 2024, respectively, the two entities were worthless. Direct ties to Poliavich and Butko were severed.
RightNow, a German legal firm helping players recover money, looked into various claims against Araxio and Rabidi, but could not find out who was behind them. “Basically there’s no good way to track them and get the money which is owed to customers based in Europe,” says Benedikt Quarch, co-founder of RightNow. “It is crazy that those big companies can just close and reopen legal entities and move funds around.”
In 2024, the network’s structures were further opacified. More shell corporations were formed in the Marshall Islands. Casino trademarks like Wazamba or House of Spades, initially held by Cypriot entities, were shifted to a Dubai post box company.
A majority of the blacklisted websites that Investigate Europe linked to Soft2bet also seemingly left Curaçao. They now use a gambling licence from Anjouan, an island in the Indian Ocean which has grown as another tax haven for virtual casinos. Just like Curaçao before, a permit from Anjouan doesn’t allow casinos to access most European markets legally.
Due to the separation of corporate entities and their owners’ assets, the previously fined or convicted companies do not appear to affect the workings of the other nodes in Poliavich’s network. The Soft2bet group is gearing up to launch its Elabet brand in Greece, having gained the necessary licence there, even though 54 of its other websites feature on the country’s blacklist. The company also recently secured regulatory approval in Spain, despite Rabidi’s unpaid fine there.
Malta’s Bill 55 under the microscope for shielding gambling industry’s illegalities
The issue surrounding Maltese-licensed operators and their unauthorised operations has brought renewed focus on the controversial Bill 55, which critics argue effectively nullifies court verdicts elsewhere in the European Union to protect themselves from potentially having to pay out millions in legal claims.
Under a law known as Bill 55, Maltese courts can “refuse recognition and, or enforcement” of any foreign judgment involving companies registered on the island, namely the gambling industry.
The law effectively shields owners of brands from judgements handed down abroad, of which there are an increasing number.
Lawyers told Investigate Europe that Bill 55, described by one as a “sledgehammer”, violates EU law and is preventing thousands of successful claims issued in European courts from being paid out.
Given the stakes, pressure is now mounting on the European Commission to challenge the Maltese regulation, in place since 2023, that is thwarting claimants from recouping their losses. Austria’s highest court, meanwhile, has urged the European Court of Justice to intervene and rule whether the Maltese regulation breaches EU law.
There are around 50,000 ongoing claims in Germany and Austria alone, lawyers told Investigate Europe. The law firm G&L Legal in Vienna is itself dealing with over 15,000 cases, many concerning industry heavyweights in Malta.
The Maltese government and gambling regulator refused to be interviewed for this story.
Operators argue that as they are already registered in one member state – Malta – they have the right to operate in all EU states. In its annual report, Flutter, one of the internationally fined gambling operators, said it “strongly disputes” the claims made in Austria and Germany. It said its Maltese entities are “compliant in accordance with EU law” and can offer services across jurisdictions. National laws say the opposite: a company must be licensed domestically and pay taxes to be able to operate.
Legislation in Malta, like in other countries, also offers the so-called corporate veil between the shareholders of a company and the company. By law, shareholders are generally not personally responsible for the company’s debts beyond their investment in the company, except when there is evidence of fraud, improper conduct or defrauding of creditors, but that is to be determined by courts, and courts tend to be cautious with lifting the corporate veil.
Reporters spoke to 182 victims of multi-million euro investment scams that earned over €230 million in four years.
Two networks: One Israeli-European, the other Georgian targeted victims across the globe, including Malta.
Malta-registered companies among payment service providers and banks that enabled operations. One recently terminated relationships with alleged scam operators.
Three victims of various scams launched cases with Malta’s financial arbiter.
Updated with a statement from Payhound Limited
A Maltese-registered company was key in transferring funds extracted from victims of a massive investment scam targeting victims across dozens of countries, including Malta.
A collaborative investigation by Swedish Television (SVT), OCCRP and its media partners, including Amphora Media and the Times of Malta, has revealed unprecedented insight into how these extensive investment scam networks operate – and how chilling, professionalised, and far-reaching the industry has become.
Reporters have contacted 166 victims of the two networks who say they’ve been scammed approx. €18 million by an Israeli-European network and a network in Georgia.
Financial records in the leak show that in four years, the two scam networks raked in a total of about €230 million from would-be investors.
Credit: James O’Brien / OCCRP
People from every walk of life have fallen victim to these scams, which leads them to lose their savings and, in many cases, their mental health.
Victims include a Canadian crane operator living with a disability, a retired finance professor, a Swedish pensioner who needed money for dental procedures, and an Estonian lawyer who was targeted while in the hospital.
Far from dingy ‘boiler rooms’, leaked data and communication obtained by OCCRP’s partner Swedish Television (SVT) shows that investment scam call centres are based in slick office buildings, including in countries in the European Union, with marketing firms, payment service providers and high street banks enabling their operations.
One of these providers was the Malta-registered OpenPayd – another is Payhound.
OpenPayd acknowledged its relationship with entities linked to the scheme. However, it said it terminated its relationship with them, “all for reasons related to their failures to maintain adequate controls”- and stressed that it did not deal with individuals and only serviced corporate clients.
Update: After the publication of the articles, a representative of Payhound Limited contacted our partner, the Times of Malta, explaining that reporters’ questions were filtered into the recipient’s spam folder. The company added the following statement: “Payhound maintains the highest standards of compliance, adheres to industry best practice and has consistently met all applicable legal and regulatory requirements.”
Credit: James O’Brien / OCCRP
How the scheme works
The scam centres see perpetrators pose as legitimate brokers and contact potential investors to encourage them to deposit funds on trading platforms such as Rivobanc and Stoxinvest. Most exist only as websites not linked to any corporate entity and are falsely located in financial centres like London and Zurich.
Scammers gain access to vast amounts of personal information from their victims’ computers via remote access software called Anydesk, which they ask them to install, supposedly to help them with transactions.
The software system they use can be manipulated to create illusory profits on traders’ initial investments, offering false claims about higher returns or blocked withdrawals — a technique to encourage them to send more.
The leaked records detail how “recovery agents” even contact existing victims, pretending to be from financial authorities. They promise to help recoup the money — for an upfront fee — only to scam them again.
In some cases, unsuspecting victims are convinced to transfer money to other victims, unwittingly aiding the scammers in layering and moving funds.
Leaked financial documents reveal Maltese-registered companies acting as crucial links in funnelling funds stolen from victims of the scams, with entities like OpenPayd acting as payment providers.
Victims were often led to believe that they were making payments to accounts they held at certain financial institutions that belonged to them when, in reality, they belonged to the scammers in question.
They argued that the financial institutions in question, like OpenPayd, failed to stop the payments while continuing to offer accounting facilities to the scheme’s beneficiaries.
Leaked spreadsheets, payroll data, and deposit databases show:
Over 26,000 would-be investors from 34 countries were targeted, with the largest sums taken from Canada, Spain, Australia, the U.K., and South Africa.
Between January 2021 and December 2024, this network received €230 million in payments.
Only about 2% of deposits are ever returned, sometimes labelled as “loans” or “upselling”, to lure victims into investing more.
The impact is huge.
The OCCRP investigation revealed a disturbing snapshot of the emotional and financial harm inflicted by these networks.
Victims frequently express suicidal thoughts and describe being left penniless while scammers taunt them or subject them to verbal abuse, mocking them for “falling for” what is ultimately a well-coordinated fraud.
Credit: James O’Brien / OCCRP
Malta’s fintech companies and neobanks play a role in transferring stolen funds.
Reporters found that scammers directed victims to open accounts with so-called neobanks – technology-driven banking companies that aim to disrupt the traditional banking sector.
The Malta-based OpenPayd Financial Services Malta Limited is not a traditional neobank – it does not target individuals. Its U.K. licence to provide e-money services was cancelled, but in Malta, it works as a financial institution licensed to offer e-money and payment services.
Reporters found that numerous scam victims, many in Spain and the U.K., transferred large amounts to the account of CurrencyRock UAB, a Lithuania-based company trading as Insirex.
Financial reports leaked from one of the scam centres show that payment service providers had separate tabs – CurrencyRock’s Insirex was one.
In some cases, OpenPayd did not execute transfers as intended but was indicated as the provider of choice for Insirex transfers. Leaked internal chats show the scam team exchanging instructions relating to Insirex transfers.
In filings to the Lithuanian registry, CurrencyRock claims to have only one employee, and its volume of paid taxes is low. However, the leak shows victims transferred thousands of euros at a time to the company, and in only three months, the company sent and received €2.5 million. Attempts to reach the declared owner by our Lithuanian partner, Siena, were unsuccessful.
From this account, held in OpenPayd, funds were transferred to a Malta-based Payhound Limited, which is licensed to provide nominee services and execute orders on behalf of clients.
The term ‘nominee services’ means that the company is holding money or investment in someone else’s name, separating the nominee’s and client’s money – effectively obscuring ownership.
Payhound Limited did not reply to reporters’ questions about whether CurrencyRock held an account with them and what actions are taken when a client company is suspected of scamming victims.
Blue Whale Tech Inc., a Canadian company running the Cratos cryptocurrency exchange, was another company used in the scheme with an OpenPayd account. Responding to reporters’ questions, a representative of Cratos said, “our clients are 100% individual clients who wish to purchase and/or sell digital currencies” and denied working with scamming enterprises. OpenPayd’s representative said that Blue Whale Tech’s account was terminated in 2023, also for the failures to maintain adequate controls.
In its reply, OpenPayd stressed that it did not deal with individuals and only serviced corporate clients.
“We have our own regulatory responsibilities to manage financial crime risks posed by Clients,” the company’s representative wrote. “We monitor all transactions to/from our Clients for fraud or other financial crime flags (e.g. sanction screening), including through a comprehensive Fraud Monitoring Programme designed to combat fraud from End Customers.”
Asked about the specific companies mentioned in the leak, OpenPayd representative wrote that Currency Rock and Blue Whale Tech Inc. “are no longer customers of OpenPayd. We terminated Blue Whale Tech Inc. […] in 2023 and CurrencyRock in 2024, all for reasons related to their failures to maintain adequate controls.”
Victims filed complaints against OpenPayd with Malta’s Financial Arbiter
In 2024 alone, three victims of various scams filed complaints before the Financial Arbiter in Malta after having studied the account numbers of their scammers and identifying OpenPayd as the service provider that opened these accounts.
In all cases, OpenPayd argued against any obligations to the victims because they did not have a business relationship with them. Instead, OpenPayd only had a business relationship with the alleged scammers.
In one case, which concerned Hasbix Analytics sro, OpenPayd declared to the Arbiter that the accused company had been added to OpenPayd’s Fraud Monitoring Programme.
“Hasbix was seemingly left operating without suspension under a ‘60-day grace period’ permitted by OpenPayd before the relationship and account of Hasbix with OpenPayd was eventually ‘fully terminated on 29 May 2024’ after ‘a 60-day notice for Hasbix to cease operations and stop any transactions on the account, in line with OpenPayd’s terms and conditions’,” according to the case documents.
“If the Client fails to improve their management of fraud and/or reduce its fraud rates within a reasonable period of time, we terminate the relationship,” the representative added before specifying that relationships with 21 clients were terminated due to fraud-related reasons over the past three years and that its monitoring system identified 0.07% of transactions on their platform as fraudulent.
In all three cases, the Financial Arbiter concluded that the victims were ineligible to seek justice in Malta by not individually being the financial service provider’s customers.
“I am concerned not only with the quantity but also with the quality of these fraud schemes,” Financial Arbiter Alfred Mifsud wrote in the institution’s newsletter.
“Get-rich-quick schemes are invariably too good to be true. They are carefully laid out to tempt vulnerable consumers to try their luck with a small sum. Once inside the scheme, it gets progressively more difficult to extricate themselves out, and they are quite often convinced to continue paying into the false scheme until, finally, the truth is exposed, with hurtful results – both financial and psycho-social.”
However, the legal loophole that left OpenPayd without responsibility for facilitating payments demanded from victims by alleged scammers may eventually be closed.
“The necessary changes to CAP 555 (Arbiter for Financial Services Act) will form part of Budget Measures Implementation Act,” financial arbiter Alfred Mifsud wrote in reply to the reporters’ questions, clarifying that “The aim is to render all victims of fraud as eligible customers of any licensed financial services provider involved in the suspected fraudulent payment transaction.”
The arbiter added, “A decision on case no. 155/2024 should be issued shortly being a case which for particular circumstances was not blocked by ineligibility criteria and proceeded to be adjudicated on merits.”
If you have been a victim of this or similar scams, please reach out to julian@amphora.media or daiva@amphora.media.You can consult a handbook of scams by the eSkills Malta Foundation here, or contact the Victim Support Agency.
Maltese companies sanctioned for links to the notorious Serniya network remain active despite criminal charges
A Russian national named on a US sanctions list for allegedly enabling Russia’s intelligence services and helping it evade Western sanctionsthrough the notorious Serniya network remains a Maltese citizen nearly three years after the Home Affairs Ministry announced its intention to revoke her citizenship.
The Home Affairs Ministry announced it would begin the process of the “deprivation of Maltese citizenship” of EvgeniyaVladimirovna Bernova on 1st April 2022. However, an analysis by Amphora Media of government gazettes published between 2021 and today shows that only four persons have had their citizenship revoked. None of them are Bernova.
Since a change in the law in December 2020, the government is legally bound to “ensure that the names of those persons deprived of Maltese citizenship are published by means of a notice in the [Government] Gazette”.
Agenzija Kommunita Malta – the government agency responsible for citizenship-related matters – confirmed with Amphora Media that the persons who had their citizenship revoked were solely the ones published in the government gazette.
Bernova’s Maltese citizenship status was also verified through the Malta Business Registry database, where she remains listed as ‘Maltese’ under ‘nationality’. Her name is still listed on the “frequently updated” US sanctions list today.
Evgeniya Bernova (third from left) at an event organised at the Hilton for the local film industry by her company MaltaRent Ltd. in 2016. According to archived pages from its website, MaltaRent was established locally to “supply the latest digital technology to … clients from the film industry”.
Bernova is not alone. Tal Dilian – an Israeli intelligence expert, an IDF reserve colonel and founder of Intellexa – a cyber spyware firm known for creating the notorious ‘Predator’ spyware – was named on a US sanctions list in March 2024 but still retains his Maltese citizenship with the ministry announcing that it would be kicking off the revocation process a year ago.
Similarly, Semen Kuksov, a Maltese citizen imprisoned in the United Kingdom for “running a professional banking service for criminals across the world” as part of a wider billion-dollar-money-laundering network, also remains a citizen after his revocation process began at the end of 2024.
Asked by Amphora Media about the fate of Bernova, Dillian, and Kuksov’s Maltese citizenship, the ministry said that “(until finalised)…deprivation processes are internal Ministerial matters.”
“It is to be emphasised that thereafter the publication of the names of the persons concerned is mandatory by law. Thus, the publication of names occurs when the deprivation processes are finalised,” a spokesperson said.
The reasons behind the lengthy processes could vary, and the Ministry said that “there are no statutory timelines” for the process, reiterating that the person being deprived of citizenship could opt to lodge an inquiry with the Committee of Inquiry. This could prolong the procedure.
The Ministry did not specify whether appeals have been filed.
Semen Kuksov
Bernova’s Maltese companies remain active despite sanctions
Bernova’s companies – including Maltese companies Malberg Ltd, Djeco Group Holding Ltd and Maltarent Ltd – were named on the list of sanctions imposed by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in March 2022, shortly after Russia’s war on Ukraine began.
The sanctions were part of a “crackdown on the Kremlin’s sanctions evasion networks and technology companies, which are instrumental to the Russian Federation’s war machine.” The network became known as the Serniya network.
Moscow-based OOO Serniya Engineering, which was at the centre of the network, engaged in proliferation activities at the direction of Russian Intelligence Services, OFAC had reported.
The network “operated across multiple countries to obfuscate the Russian military and intelligence agency end-users that rely on critical Western technology.”
It explained that Bernova, an associate of the Serniya network, operated the Malta-based Malberg Ltd through a multinational web of shell companies. Malberg worked to “deceptively acquire dual-use equipment on behalf of Russian end-users.”
In December 2022, five Russian nationals and two U.S nationals were charged with conspiracy and other offences related to the global procurement and money laundering scheme through the Serniya network on behalf of the Russian government. As of November 2024, two have pleaded guilty, while the rest remain at large.
However, despite the sanctions, allegations and links to criminal charges against the network, all three companies remain active, a cross-check by Amphora Media with the Malta Business Registry shows.
According to Malta’s Sanctioning Monitoring Board, OFAC’s sanctions are not enforceable. However, it “recommended that Maltese economic operators undertake the necessary due diligence when dealing with persons, entities and bodies listed by national sanctions of other countries, particularly paying close attention to the reasons why such sanctions have been imposed in the first place”.
The situation raises questions about the potential ramifications of such long revocation processes on local, EU, and international levels.
In a comment to Amphora Media, Steve Peers, an EU Law Professor at Royal Holloway, University of London, explained that the EU law on sanctions does not explicitly require the Member States to revoke citizenship from those who evade those sanctions, however, doing so would make sanctions more effective.
“It might possibly be argued… that there is an implied obligation to remove citizenship to make the sanctions more effective, in particular in the context of investor citizenship,” he said.
It is unclear why the Maltese government decided to begin procedures to revoke Bernova’s citizenship. Still, the companies involved in the same sanctions list remain active, and questions sent to the government were left unanswered at the time of publication.
Amphora Media was unable to confirm whether Bernova acquired citizenship through naturalisation or investment.
One golden passport buyer loses citizenship in the last four years
Since the change of law in December 2020, only one golden passport buyer has had their Maltese citizenship revoked, Amphora Media can reveal.
Pavel Melnikov is among the four persons listed in the government gazettes as having their citizenships revoked – the other three did not feature in the citizenship list since the introduction of the IIP scheme 2013 or lost their citizenship due to marriage annulments, research by Amphora Media shows.
The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation and partners had reported on the Russian entrepreneur’s citizenship application in Passport Papers.
In September 2018, Melnikov’s property in Finland was raided by Finnish police and soldiers. A trial against the oligarch in Finnish Courts began in December 2023, according to local news reports, where he faced charges including aggravated tax fraud and aggravated accounting crime. The trial is ongoing.
Halil Falyalı, a late Turkish Cypriot businessman allegedly behind an illegal betting empire, used Binance to move millions of funds.
Turkish financial crimes investigators’ report listed around 100 cryptocurrency wallets they said were used by the group to transfer the “revenues of crime.”
Over $29 million passed through Falyalı’s Binance Global accounts.
The account with Binance Global was opened when Binance was not licensed to operate as a financial service provider in Malta.
Falyalı’swidow says he declared crypto assetsabroad worth €30 million, $10 million and £10 million in various cryptocurrencies.
Using blockchain records, reporters found that the known wallets of the network received more than €1.3 billion since 2018.
Halil Falyalı, a late Turkish Cypriot businessman allegedly behind an illegal betting empire, is believed to have moved his money using the Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange Binance, a collaborative investigation by Amphora Media and Times of Malta has revealed.
Falyalı, who was once indicted in absentia in the US in 2015 for allegedly laundering drug money, was murdered in 2022 when his car was ambushed by gunmen with automatic weapons.
The workings of his alleged illegal gambling network and its links to Malta were recently revealed in a collaborative investigation between OCCRP, Amphora Media, Times of Malta and other media partners.
A 2022 Turkish financial crimes investigators’ report listed around 100 cryptocurrency wallets they said were used by the group to transfer the “revenues of crime”.
The report identified Binance TR – the Turkish branch of Binance – as one of the three crypto asset service providers used by the network. Using these providers, individuals within the network collected transfers from others and then forwarded them into accounts held by crypto asset service providers. Investigators noted that over $29 million passed through Falyalı’s Binance Global accounts.
Using blockchain records, reporters found that the known wallets of the network received more than €1.3 billion since 2018.
In December last year, Turkish prosecutors indicted more than 240 people, including Falyalı’s widow, on illegal gambling and money laundering charges. The posthumous indictment accused Falyalı of “establishing an organisation with the aim of committing crime.”
Turkish investigators asked the Binance branch in Malta to identify the owner of an account central to the crypto transfers. Binance confirmed that the cryptocurrency wallet belonged to Halil Cahit/Djahit, a Cypriot citizen.
Investigators were able to confirm that Djahit is an alias of Halil Falyalı. Halil Djahit was Falyalı’s name on his Greek Cypriot ID. Meanwhile, Falyalı submitted a copy of his Cypriot passport and a selfie to open his account.
After Falyalı’s death, investigators noted that his widow made a large withdrawal from his Binance account. In her testimony upon indictment, Özge Taşker Falyalı confirmed that she held a wallet at Binance Global under her maiden name – and that her husband had declared crypto assets abroad worth €30 million, $10 million and £10 million in various cryptocurrencies. She denied the charges against her.
The report suggests that the account was opened with the Malta-based Binance Global on 26th November 2020 – when Binance was not licensed to operate as a financial service provider in Malta.
Investigators also believe the detected transactions are only a fraction of the money movements within this network.
Cemil Önal, Falyalı’s longtime head of finance who is facing charges linked to illegal gambling and faces broader claims of being “one of the masterminds” of Falyalı’s murder, says that the network allegedly earned €75 million a month, while authorities have seized around €40 million in assets.
Credit: Courtesy of Cemil Önal.
Cemil Önal (left) with Özge Taşker Falyali (right).
Speaking to our partners OCCRP, Önal claims that Falyalı’s network also used so-called cold wallets, devices for storing cryptocurrency keys offline, without connecting them to the internet.
Recipients of betting revenues would transfer their cryptocurrency assets into these wallets. These devices are then physically transported, and the money is cashed.
In response to reporters’ questions about the alleged illegal betting tycoon’s accounts, a representative of Binance said, “Binance aims to set a high standard for compliance across the industry, proactively detecting and preventing illicit activity both on and off our platform. We work closely with law enforcement and industry partners to enhance security and regulatory compliance. This includes advanced AI-driven identity verification, ensuring a robust and effective Know Your Customer (KYC) process.”
In 2023, Binance’s co-founder and, at the time, majority owner Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme in the US. In his plea, Zhao admitted telling employees that it was “better to ask for forgiveness than permission”.
A base in Malta
Binance moved to Malta in 2018, taking advantage of the welcoming environment for cryptocurrency companies at the time.
In 2018, Malta adopted an act which provided a grace period to cryptocurrency operators of 12 months to apply for an appropriate licence. Within months from opening, Binance signed an agreement with the Malta Stock Exchange “to launch a new digital exchange for security token trading”.
However, the company never acquired the licence to operate in financial services, and in February 2020, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) issued a statement that “Binance is not authorised by the MFSA to operate in the cryptocurrency sphere”.
Economy Minister Silvio Schembri with Binance’s Changpeng Zhao and others.
A flurry of warnings to the public from regulatory authorities followed: in the UK, Poland, Germany and even the Cayman Islands, where its main holding was based.
Soon, Binance found itself in more trouble. In 2023, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged the company and its founder, Zhao, for circumventing legally required compliance controls to maximise corporate profits. The company and its founder pleaded guilty to the US charges of anti-money laundering failings.
After pleading guilty, Zhang was sentenced to four months in prison, and Binance agreed to pay $2.85 billion for willfully evading US law and other violations. Zhao finished serving his sentence last September.
Halil Falyal and Özge Taşker Falyalı
Blockchain for betting revenues
The northern part of Cyprus, where the Falyalı family resided, is occupied by Türkiye. Türkiye is working on cryptocurrency legislation of its own, and as it stands, Binance continues offering services there.
Individuals who have made transfers identified in the financial investigators’ report were found to have accounts with Binance TR (registered as (BN Teknoloji A.Ş. and incorporated in 2019).
For a time, Zhao was personally its shareholder, but the latest data shows that the shares are held by Binance’s holding company in Ireland.
Türkiye banned cryptocurrencies as a payment method in 2021 but then adopted a programme to regulate and tax cryptocurrencies between 2024 and 2026. The country’s Revenue Administration considers cryptocurrencies to be assets, and as such, they can be inherited.
Amphora Media collaborated with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Times of Malta, Follow the Money (Netherlands), Hetq (Armenia), Investigative Reporting Lab Macedonia, Belarusian Investigative Center and Shteg.org (Albania) on the research for this publication.
Documents link Vigen Badalyan, an Armenian with Maltese citizenship, to VBETTR, and its numerous iterations – illegal gambling sites blacklisted in Türkiye
Illegal VBETTR websites carry partnerships with the Maltese Premier Leagueand the Malta National Football team
Records and a first-hand account suggest Badalyan & his SoftConstruct provided services to the illegal gambling network of Halil Falyalı, a Turkish Cypriot businessman murdered in 2022.
Vigen Badalyan, an Armenian with Maltese citizenship, was named “leader of the year” for his “visionary strategies” at SiGMA Europe 2024 in Malta, a government-endorsed conference which carried the logo of Badalyan’s BetConstruct onevery participant’s badge. However, an investigation by an international media consortium has shown that Badalyan’s interests allegedly extend to lucrative illegal gambling markets, notably in Türkiye.
Documents obtained by OCCRP, Amphora Media and other media partners have uncovered that Vigen Badalyan was behind vbettr.com and its numerous iterations – illegal gambling sites blacklisted in Türkiye. This website family is a Turkish twin of Badalyan’s Vbet brand. Vbet has partnered with the Maltese Premier Leagueand the Malta National Football team, and this is displayed on the Türkiye-targeting website as well.
SoftConstruct’s legal team said, “Vbettr.com is not owned, managed, or operated by SoftConstruct or Vigen Badalyan”. However, they did not reply to our request for clarification when provided with website registrations, which showed the contrary.
Vigen Badalyan and Economy Minister Silvio Schembri. Source: Vigen Badalyan’s Instagram
According to a former head of finance of slain alleged illegal gambling tycoon Halil Falyalı, Badalyan’s companies allegedly provide betting infrastructure to Falyalı’s illicit network.
The investigation team verified website registration data to find that SoftConstruct Limited is listed as the internet service provider for at least four websites blacklisted in Türkiye that were registered by Ibrahim Tokkan.
Tokkan was indicted in 2024 as an alleged manager of the illegal betting network of Halil Falyalı and worked for companies belonging to the Falyalı family. He denies the charges.
The legal team of SoftConstruct denied the claims, saying, “We categorically reject any suggestion of involvement in unlawful activities or associations with criminal organizations. As a B2B [business-to-business] technology provider, SoftConstruct supplies gaming software solutions, but it does not operate or control third-party businesses that use its products.”
The Badalyan’s ties to Malta and VBETTR’s operations
Vigen Badalyan and his brother, Vahe, are known for founding Soft Construct, which owns the BetConstruct brand. Data from 2021 shows that in Malta, they were the declared beneficial owners of Vivaro (now SCGO) and Soft Construct (Malta), as well as owners of FastShift Ltd. and V Venture Ltd.
The brothers and members of their families have become naturalised Maltese citizens through the citizenship-by-investment scheme.
In a corporate network that spans continents, Soft Construct and BetConstruct offer products and services targeting businesses (so-called B2B products), while Vbet targets gamblers directly.
Vbet websites are owned by corresponding national branches or the Maltese branch, which targets several EU countries and the UK. Badalyan companies use similar brands across jurisdictions.
Their Maltese companies, either owned directly or via the Isle of Man, are registered at the same address in Portomaso and have, over time, shared the same directors.
Yet there is one website, and its many spelling variations, which, despite similar branding, is not immediately recognisable as part of the Vbet family and does not appear to be run by the same people.
VbetTR, with its numerous iterations, does not appear on the official whitelist of licensed gambling operators in Türkiye. On the contrary, different numbered variations of VbetTR are found on the country’s blacklist.
Still, websites targeting gamblers in Türkiye have carried the familiar Vbet logo and display the Badalyan company’s partnerships with European football clubs.
Malta Premier League and Malta National Team logos on an illegal VBETTR website
The website targeting Türkiye is listed on a licence issued by Curacao – as a recent investigation by Follow the Money shows, Curacao is a go-to jurisdiction for gambling operators in the grey area. While they obtain some form of licence, they do not operate with one that covers the jurisdiction of their target players. In this case, being a licensed gambling provider in Curacao -or Malta- does not entitle a provider to offer gambling in Türkiye.
Historical domain data for the vbettr.com website reveals that in 2019, the registrant’s name was listed as “Badalyan Vigen”, and the associated email address was team.webmaster@betconstruct.com.
In response to reporters’ questions, SoftConstruct’s legal team said, “Vbettr.com is not owned, managed, or operated by SoftConstruct or Vigen Badalyan. To the best of our knowledge, the website in question [vbettr] was not registered using the email address team.webmaster@betconstruct.com. We have no record of this email being used for such a registration, and we are not aware of any connection between our systems and this domain.”
Badalyan’s AI chatbot on BetConstruct’s website provided a different answer.
Asked if his companies offer betting services in Türkiye, Badalyan’s chatbot said, “Yes, some of the companies co-founded by Vigen Badalyan, such as Vbet, offer betting services in Turkey. However, it’s important to check the specific regulations and availability of services in the region, as they can vary. If you need more detailed information, please let me know!”
Amphora Media requested clarification on the discrepancies between SoftConstruct’s replies and the documents found by reporters showing Vigen Badalyan’s involvement. However, no replies were forthcoming.
BetConstruct at Sigma 2024
The director of IT Management Santora B.V., VbetTR’s Curacao licence holder, is Yeva Asiryan, who actively promotes BetConstruct on her Facebook account and, in some documents, appears as Yevgenya Asiryan. ‘Asiryan Yevgenya’ is also the registrant contact name on BetConstruct’s Canadian website. BetConstruct expanded into Canada in early 2025.
In response to questions sent in 2021 by our publishing partner, Hetq, a representative of Soft Construct CJSC denied knowingly participating in illegal gambling in Türkiye, saying that the company merely provides technology to various gambling operators globally, including those that target “the Turkish-speaking clients scattered around the world”.
Badalyan companies have faced regulatory action before
This is not the first time the brothers’ businesses are subject to regulatory action. In 2020, the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit in Malta issued Malta-based Vivaro Ltd a €733,160 fine, but it was challenged and revoked on constitutional grounds. There are two pending court cases involving Vivaro, one in the constitutional court.
In response to reporters’ questions, the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) said, “The MGA collaborates with a wide range of international stakeholders to ensure that the gaming sector is not misused for money laundering or other criminal purposes. Therefore, when you reference Vivaro (now SCGO) and the fines that were issued by the FIAU, we would like to note that these were a direct result of a full-scope examination conducted by the MGA, where we identified a number of shortcomings. The FIAU subsequently imposed an administrative fine of €733,160 and a Follow-up Directive. The sanctions issued by the FIAU are currently pending court proceedings.”
In 2021, Swedish gambling authorities wanted to suspend the Malta-based Vivaro Ltd’s gambling licence over failing to commence operations within a year from registration. Vivaro Ltd responded in its statement that during the period June 2020 – May 2021 it had no turnover in Sweden and that 50 staff members were drafted into the Armenian army.
In the financial statement from January to December 2021, submitted to the Malta Business Registry, Vivaro reported receiving income from Sweden and having five employees in Malta. Still, Sweden’s Administrative Court reversed the decision of the gambling authorities to suspend its licences for commercial online gaming and betting and issued a warning, according to the Swedish Gambling Authority”.
In the UK, failings were found in Vivaro’s, since renamed SCGO’s, processes for money laundering prevention and safer gambling, but in 2023, SCGO reached a settlement with the UK Gambling Commission and agreed to pay £337,631.
In Romania, vbet.com found itself blacklisted by authorities in 2018 for operating without a licence. But in 2024, BetConstruct announced obtaining a licence to provide B2C betting (that is, targeting customers directly) in Romania. As the original Vbet website remains blocked, the company launched with the “Victory Bet” domain, registered by the Malta-based V Venture.
Meanwhile, Vigen Badalyan continues touring gaming events around the world, attending exclusive interviews, and collecting new gambling licences for his companies.
SiGMA did not respond to questions sent.
Amphora Media collaborated with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Times of Malta, Public Record (Romania), Follow the Money (Netherlands), Hetq (Armenia), Investigative Reporting Lab Macedonia, Belarusian Investigative Center and Shteg.org (Albania) on the research for this investigation.
Malta was a “base” of operations for the alleged illegal betting network of Turkish Cypriot Halil Falyalı, according to his former Head of Finance.
Cemil Önal says the network allegedly earned €75 million monthly. Authorities have indicted several people, seized around €40 million, and discovered around €1.3 billion in crypto wallets – some in Malta. Halil Falyalı’s widow has purchased properties worth €59.5 million.
Corporate documents, online records and first-hand accounts place Kebab Factory’s Ulaş Utku Bozdoğan and Food For Fit’s Burak Başel in the alleged network of illegal betting websites.
Documents also show wider links to suspected Albanian organised crime.
Kebab Factory outlets dot Malta, and the health-conscious Food For Fit café in Sliema draws a loyal crowd, yet behind the entrepreneurial veneer of the two men behind the popular ventures lies a darker enterprise: links to a web of online gambling platforms connected to an alleged illegal billion-euro network.
An investigation by OCCRP, Amphora Media, Times of Malta and reporters from a dozen countries has uncovered corporate documents, online records, and a first-hand account that allegedly places Ulaş Utku Bozdoğan, founder and owner of the Kebab Factory chain and Burak Başel, co-proprietor of the Food for Fit café, within the network of Halil Falyalı — a politically connected Turkish Cypriot gambling mogul murdered in February 2022.
Bozdoğan and Başel played roles in the licensing of allegedly illegal gambling websites within the network. Together, they allegedly helped sustain and expand the network, using Malta’s regulatory environment to their advantage.
A government source confirmed that the authorities are investigating Falyalı’s links to Malta. Malta’s Police Force said it was “not in a position to confirm or otherwise such information”.
Responding through his lawyer, Başel said he “had no partnership or association with Mr. Halil Falyalı in any alleged betting network.”
“The only professional interaction between our Client was when his [Falyalı’s] local company in Cyprus, Cypbet, purchased offline shop software from my [Başel’s] Cyprus-based firm.”
Bozdogan responded to questions following the article’s publication and denied all the claims, insisting that he had never met or had dealings with Halil Falyali and Cemil Onal. Food for Fit said that Basel had no management or operational role in the business.
Credit: Times of Malta
According to Turkish prosecutors, Falyalı allegedly built a cross-border illegal online betting operation that included Malta.
Falyalı, who was once indicted in absentia in the US for allegedly laundering drug money, was murdered when his car was ambushed by gunmen with automatic weapons.
He was known as a businessman and hotel proprietor of Les Ambassadeurs Hotel & Casino & Marina, an upscale resort in the port city of Kyrenia on the north Cypriot side of the divided island.
But behind the glitz, he and his associates allegedly ran an expansive illegal betting operation that generated at least €75 million per month, according to his former head of finance, Cemil Önal, who spoke to OCCRP from a Dutch prison, where he is fighting extradition to Turkey.
Credit: OCCRP
Cemil Önal during an interview with OCCRP.
Turkish prosecutors indicted Önal for allegedly establishing a criminal group for laundering money obtained from illegal betting.
In January 2023, at Turkey’s request, Interpol issued a red notice, describing Önal as “one of the masterminds” of Falyalı’s murder. Önal denies the allegation and says the bribes they paid to powerful individuals in Turkey and northern Cyprus make him a target.
Just ten months after Falyalı’s murder, authorities seized around €40 million in assets, with Turkey’s Interior Minister announcing a crackdown on the network. He even referenced Malta’s role in a press conference.
“Virtual betting, virtual gambling and crypto constitute the circulation of money in the world without any obstacles… From the Balkans to Malta and Cyprus, they are the places where [these groups] base themselves.”
In December last year, Turkish prosecutors issued a sweeping indictment against 250 people, including 35 alleged leaders of Falyalı’s network, including his widow Özge Taşker Falyalı. Reporters uncovered that Özgepurchased a dozen luxury properties in Dubai worth around €58 million in the year after her husband’s death.
Credit: Courtesy of Cemil Önal.
Cemil Önal (left) with Özge Taşker Falyali (right).
An Alleged Illegal Gambling Network’s Foothold in Malta
According to Önal, Malta was a base of the operations.
“Because, why Malta? Opening a company in Malta costs €2,000. The Falyalı family could give a power of attorney from the Greek-Cypriot side and open a company in Malta through a lawyer within a day.”
“Once you open a company, you have bank accounts and bitcoin. There is no problem in Malta when you exchange your Bitcoins and deposit them into your bank account. That is how you clean the money,” Önal says.
An indictment from Turkish authorities has revealed that Falyalı allegedly opened a cryptocurrency wallet in Malta. Malta adopted an act in 2018, which provided a grace period to cryptocurrency operators of 12 months to apply for an appropriate licence.
A confidential report from Turkey’s financial crimes investigators listed around 100 crypto wallets associated with Falyalı’s network, which reporters found have received more than €1.3 billion since 2018.
Önal says the wallets were just a fraction of the thousands of accounts the network used – a claim corroborated by the Turkish report.
Jeremy Douglas, chief of staff and strategy adviser for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said that online gambling operations often spread their infrastructure widely, for instance, by registering companies in one country and placing servers in another, all while moving money through other jurisdictions in the form of cash or cryptocurrency.
Credit: Screenshot of video posted by @arslanlar20/YouTube
Halil Falyali showing off his living room on YouTube.
Documents have also revealed the alleged network’s presence in Malta, where links to Falyalı’s operations appear in connection with Ulaş Utku Bozdoğan and Burak Başel.
They have built a flourishing portfolio of companies, including major eateries: the ever-growing Kebab Factory chain, which has opened seven outlets over the space of five years, and the more upmarket health-focused cafe in Sliema, Food for Fit, an outlet of the brand originating in Kyrenia, northern Cyprus.
Food For Fit distanced themselves from Başel, saying he “is not involved in the management of our business. He is only a shareholder/investor”. Başel owns the majority of Food For Fit Malta shares via his other company.
Credit: Times of Malta
With a stake in payment systems, software, and services to gambling businesses and to gamblers themselves, Burak Başel is present throughout the food chain of gambling and betting.
Başel styles himself as a software innovator. He co-owns fintech companies licensed by the Malta Financial Services Authority. Through one, he owns the Paymix brand, which is used by gambling companies internationally. He also has Maltese companies that provide services for gambling businesses.
In response to reporters’ questions, Finance Incorporated, the owner of the Paymix brand, wrote, “Finance Incorporated is managed by an independent Board of Directors and in implementing its conflicts of interest framework, Mr. Basel, although being the UBO, has no influence on the operation and management of the Institution.” The representative also said that “Finance Incorporated Limited does not provide services to companies that do not hold a licence to provide gambling services.”
Başel’s businesses worked with prominent corporate service providers in Malta. David-Joseph Meli, who is currently facing multiple charges, including alleged money laundering, in connection with the unrelated VGH scandal, worked with Başel’s companies and a Bozdoğan company through the Michael Kyprianou offices in Malta, a legal and corporate services firm.
At one point, Meli served as the director, legal representative, and secretary of several companies owned by Başel known under the name Pronet Gaming. Pronet companies currently use a Blackberry or Doxxon Finance label on the Malta Business Registry.
Başel, via his lawyer, said they had selected the Michael Kyprianou Law Firm due to its operations in both Malta and Cyprus, and that Meli was the firm’s representative in Malta – and changed representative when the charges against the latter became known.
David Meli said, “I have answered not guilty to all charges brought against me and I continue to proclaim my innocence in regard to the charges proffered.” He also added that “as far as they could tell” none of the companies belonging to Başel that worked with the Michael Kyprianou law firm had any connection to Falyalı.
Trustmoore Corporate Services (Malta) Limited and Trustmoore Malta Ltd, part of a group that also provides corporate services in Curacao, provided services and address to some of Başel’s companies.
In response to reporters’ questions, Trustmoore’s managing director Andrea Mizzi said that Trustmoore has not been involved in approaching payment providers on behalf of betting companies linked to the network.
Records show clear ties to illegal gambling network
Records show that Burak Başel is a shareholder of Universal Software Solutions NV, the license holder of the “BeteBet” and “KolayBet” labels, two of many betting website families in the alleged illegal gambling network that are blacklisted in Cyprus, Latvia, and Turkey. Ulaş Utku Bozdoğan was the representative for Universal Software Solutions in Albania.
Bozdogan denied the claims, insisting that the listing on official documents in the Albanian registry is incorrect. He insisted that he did not have any knowledge of the dealings of Universal Software Solutions NV.
Önal describes Betebet as Falyali’s first venture in the alleged illegal online gambling world. BeteBet was named in testimonies included in last year’s Turkish indictment.
An archived website of BeteBet describes Universal Software Solutions as the Curacao-licensed company behind the website. Operators in Turkey require a license from local authorities, and EU countries are also free to regulate gambling nationally.
Hüsnü Falyalı, Halil’s brother, told HalkTV that his brother had moved into illegal betting as early as 2004. Reporters identified one betting site, ArtemisBet, registered by a Falyalı employee, Ibrahim Tokkan, in 2007. The site was blocked by authorities in Turkey in 2017 and Poland in 2018.
Domain data show that Tokkan, who has been indicted as an alleged manager of the illegal betting network, registered sites in the kolaybet.com and betebet.com families through Total Gaming Solutions B.V. Betebet’s ownership details were hidden from 2012 until 2019.
On his ties with Betebet, Başel’s lawyer said licensing laws and restrictions vary by jurisdiction, and companies operating under a Curaçao license are responsible for ensuring compliance with local laws in the regions where they operate. He added that Universal Software Solutions sells software to businesses, and does not deal directly with the end users of the betting sites.
Credit: James O’Brien/OCCRP
Pronet Gaming is a software provider for the betting sites.
“Pronet is the same. Pronet also provides services to everyone in exchange for money. Infrastructure. Look, these are all infrastructures. You build the infrastructure. Customers want sites. You sell infrastructure to customers,”, Önal says.
Archived web pages from 2014 show Pronet Gaming Ltd. touting itself as “a trademark of Universal Software Solutions in Curaçao, with an operation base in Malta.”
In Malta, Başel has closed or renamed companies that used to carry the Pronet brand. Pronet Payment Systems Limited became Doxxon Finance Limited, which is the company that co-owns the fintech side of Başel’s business. However, Başel said he had no relation to the Pronet Gaming registered in the UK, which he says is responsible for the services for the websites.
Basel’s lawyer says that Pronet Curacao, a brand owned by Universal Software Solutions, ran B2B operations, and Pronet Malta applied for a gaming licence but never used it. He said that Pronet Gaming is a trade name, not a legal entity – making a distinction between the Malta brand and the one registered by Universal Software Solutions in Curaçao.
How does the system work?
The network’s alleged illegal betting sites mirror legal online gambling platforms: They offer live casino games, slots, and sports betting, often in customised languages with user-friendly interfaces. Gamblers can pay by credit card and crypto currency, or via various online payment platforms.In certain cases, gamblers may not know they are even using an illegal betting website.
There is a large grey area between duly licensed and fully illegal betting operators: websites that use a licence from an ‘easy’ jurisdiction to target gamblers in an area where that licence does not legally apply.
However, unlike licensed platforms, these websites regularly flout regulations. They might hold a license in Malta, Montenegro, or Curaçao — yet target gamblers in places such as Turkey, where online gambling is heavily restricted.
Once authorities blacklist a site, the network simply renames and relaunches it. BeteBet was blacklisted in Turkey in 2017, Cyprus in 2019 and Latvia 2021.
“Let’s say someone made a complaint [and the BeteBet website] was shut down,” Önal explained. “In one moment, in 16 seconds, BeteBet2 will be live. These are very cheap.”
In business with Albanian Suspected Organised Crime
Başel’s and Bozdoğan’s businesses also extend to Albania.
In Albania, Başel is a shareholder of Universe, which he owns via Universal Software Solutions in Curacao. Bozdoğan was listed as the representative of Universal Software Solutions in the company’s founding documents.
Başel’s lawyer said Bozdoğan was appointed by Universal Software Solutions as its legal representative in Albania, with a limited power of attorney issued for specific responsibilities within Albania.
“Our client does not have any personal relationship with Ulaş Utku Bozdoğan,” the lawyer said.
The other owner of Universe is a company called MAREN. MAREN was once owned by Ramazan Hasanbelli, an Albanian citizen convicted in Italy for drug trafficking and organised crime.
The current co-owner is Ilir Hasanbelli, who signed the Universe’s founding documents with Bozdoğan . Reporters uncovered documents which indicate that Ilir and Ramazan are brothers.
One of Universe’s activities was “electronic distance gaming.” Universal Software Solution N.V. invested approximately €2.6 million into the company. It was founded in 2017 and has since ceased operations.
Bozdogan did confirm that he worked for Universe. However, he said he never had any relationship with Ramazan Hasanbelli and Ilir Hasanbelli. Documents show that Bozdogan signed the founding documents of Universe with Ilir.
“The fact that I am listed as a legal representative of Universal Software Solution is an error which is linked to my time working for Universe,” he said.
Basel’s lawyer did not outright deny the links saying that ” at the license application stage, MAREN purchased software from USS [Universal Software Solutions] by transferring 30% of Universe’s shares to USS as part of the transaction” and “Universe operated under its license for a limited period of eight months, four of which were direct software development duration. Hence, only had an active operation of four months, before the project was discontinued due to new regulations implemented by the Albanian authorities. The project didn’t yield any profits for USS and ultimately resulted in financial losses for USS as a result of development costs.”
In a request for comment about the allegations that licensed gambling companies were used by members of an illegal gambling network, the Malta Gaming Authority said it was “unable to confirm or deny whether any entity or individual has been or is under investigation”, but emphasised that it “conducts due diligence checks on Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs) holding 10 per cent or more equity or voting rights in a licensed entity, as well as on the licensee’s directors and key function holders”. If the authority considers that the owners or directors are no longer ‘fit and proper’, it may suspend or cancel their gambling licences and alert other authorities, the authority said.
