HACC Confiscates UAH 2 bln from Royal Pay Europe, Associated with Russian Bookmaker 1XBET

The High Anti-Corruption Court partially granted the claim of the Ministry of Justice and collected funds and securities worth more than UAH 2 billion. Currently, this is the largest confiscated amount in the two-year operation of the sanctions mechanism. The case was heard for six months due to the large volume of assets and the complex ownership structure of the company.

About the company

Royal Pay Europe is registered in Latvia and provides services for electronic payments and other financial solutions for businesses.

In 2023, the State Bureau of Investigation opened criminal proceedings against this company for the seizure of more than EUR 30 million allocated by foreign banks to one of the Ukrainian commercial banking institutions.

According to the materials of this investigation, the company, during the hostilities in Kharkiv Oblast, tried to re-register the property rights to the real estate of one of the Ukrainian banks, which was in the process of dissolution. In addition, the SBI found that the beneficiary of Royal Pay Europe was Sergey Kondratenko, a Russian citizen associated with the Russian bookmaker 1xBet.

Earlier, in the framework of open criminal proceedings, the assets of Royal Pay Europe were seized and transferred to the ARMA for management, which acted as a third party in the sanction case. Based on the materials in this proceeding, the Ministry of Justice appealed to the HACC with a claim for confiscation. The assets are to be transferred to the State Property Fund.

An appeal against the HACC decision may be filed by the parties to the case and their representatives within five days from the date of the pronouncement of the court decision.

See our online platform to learn more about this case and other sanction cases and assets that have been recovered.