Cosmolot co-owner accuses Ukrainian officials of widespread corruption and attempts to take away business
18 April 2024 14:19
Arnulf Damerau, a British businessman and co-owner of the Cosmolot gambling website, said that corrupt officials in Ukraine are demanding that he transfer half of his company to someone else’s offshore accounts. He said this in an interview with the Financial Times, Komersant ukrainskyi 
citing Ukrayinska Pravda.
“Cosmolot is an online gambling website and, according to the publication, the 10th largest taxpayer in the country. Damerau became its co-owner in August 2023. In October last year, the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine raided the company. Damerau was accused of violating gambling laws and tax evasion in the amount of €560 million, and the company’s accounts were frozen.
Damerau claims that “the charges against the company are fabricated”. According to him, Cosmolot only started operating in 2021, after the Ukrainian government changed gambling legislation. Last year, the website’s total revenue was €208 million, compared to €4.8 million in 2022 and €250 thousand in 2021. According to official tax reports, the company paid €60 million in taxes last year. According to Damerau, the State Tax Service audited its accounts in August.
The businessman claims that in December, he met with the authorities in Vienna and was told that legal claims against Cosmolot would be dropped if he agreed to transfer control of half of the company to an offshore trust. Damerau says he has told EU and US law enforcement officials about this.
“I don’t want to talk about what is happening to me as a businessman trying to invest in Ukraine, because the people responsible for this are in the minority, and they are betraying the younger generation of Ukrainians who are giving their blood to give their country a European future. This is a country that wants to be part of NATO and the European Union, but what is happening there now – by a small minority – gives me a déjà vu of the darkest days of Yanukovych,”
– damerau said.
He added that he will attend the June Ukraine Recovery Summit in Berlin, to which he has been invited as a major foreign investor.
It should be noted that in 2023, the top 10 most successful gambling companies in Ukraine earned UAH 54.92 billion. This is 28 times more than a year earlier – UAH 1.94 billion.
In recent weeks, the discussion about online gambling has intensified in Ukraine. Pavel Petrichenko, a soldier of the 59th Brigade, registered a petition demanding to restrict the operation of online casinos. In a few hours, it gained the 25,000 signatures required for consideration.
TheGambling Commission demands to close access to 5 onlinecasinos.
