1XBet network licensed in Ukraine thanks to Baum despite Russian beneficiaries – investigation
The betting corporation with Russian roots 1XBet at the height of the war received a license in Ukraine for betting activities, “in this it was assisted by Boris Baum, who is associated with the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and Vladimir Putin's special representative Alexander Babakov,” writes DS with reference to the investigation of InformNapalm.org . The “official” 1XBet operates in Ukraine on behalf of Your Betting Company LLC. LLC received a license to conduct betting activities and organize gambling. Its owner is Sergei Petrovich Tsibin. “1XBet is an extremely disparate structure of hundreds of companies around the world. Legally, this colossus has no ultimate single owner, and connections are also not fixed … However, the ultimate owners of this business still exist. Since the founding of 1XBet, 3 Russians have remained them – Roman Semiokhin, Sergey Karshkov and Dmitry Kazorin. The first 1XBet betting platform was created by them in Bryansk,” the newspaper writes. There was a criminal case on the activities of 1XBet in the Russian Federation and the founders are allegedly wanted, but they live in Cyprus, do business there and build a 22-storey office for 1XBet. The case in the Russian Federation allegedly “was hushed up after 1XBet became a sponsor of the Russian FC Dynamo, which is controlled by Russian security forces … Now in the Russian Federation, despite the illegal position of 1XBet, their” clone “- 1XStavka” works. The activities of 1XBet, the journalists write, “was stopped in the UK, in Kenya. And in the US, the American Film Association accused 1XBet of sponsoring piracy.” “However, despite such a train, the Russians were able to obtain a license in Ukraine, and during the war. Boris Baum helped them in this, the first deputy head of the advisory and expert council of the Commission on the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (CRAIL) … Baum worked for many years top manager in the energy company VS Energy, which until 2021 was controlled by Russian businessmen Alexander Babakov (now a member of the State Duma, and previously known as a representative of the Luzhnikovskaya group), Evgeny Giner and Mikhail Voevodin,” the DS article says. VS Energy in Ukraine controls shares in Zhytomiroblenergo, Zakarpattyaoblenergo, Kirovogradoblenergo, Khersonoblenergo, Rivnooblenergo, Chernivtsioblenergo and Khmelnytskoblenergo. The investigation says that Baum “brought Semiokhin, Karshkov with Mikhail Spektor – another native of Luzhnikov. Now Spektor is developing the 1XBet business in Ukraine. He also lobbied in CRAIL to obtain a license for 1XBet. Since a large-scale war between Russia and Ukraine began while the papers were being drawn up, the Russians had to promise to buy military government bonds for UAH 500 million”. “There was another proposal from 1XBet – to allow accepting bets from players who are non-residents of Ukraine and introduce preferential taxation for such activities,” the investigation says. According to InformNapalm, this “will enable 1XBet to expand its activities around the world from under the Ukrainian umbrella and will allow money laundering from operations carried out outside of Ukraine.” Investigators reported that the Kyiv prosecutor's office was investigating the activities of Your Betting Company, but called for the attention of the SBU and the National Security and Defense Council to be drawn to the situation.
