Kazakhstan's Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM) has placed two foreign nationals on its wanted list on suspicion of running illegal online casinos for Kazakh users, the website infohub.kz reports.
According to the agency, the wanted individuals are Dmitry Punin, born 08.02.1985, a citizen of the Russian Federation, and Marina Ilyina, born 11.02.1989, a citizen of Ukraine. Both are subject to a pre-trial measure of detention.
The AFM said the suspects are accused of organizing illegal online casino operations targeting Kazakh users.
"According to the investigation, an extensive international infrastructure was set up to carry out the scheme, including controlled companies, payment organizations and banking instruments," the AFM said.
The Kazakh leg of the system was a company that held a licence for bookmaking activity, but according to the AFM the business was used as a cover for online casino operations.
"Acquired payment organizations, nominal directors and a network of banking terminals were used to handle the money flows. Their connection and operation were ensured with the assistance of representatives of the financial sector," the agency said.
The operation resulted in a network of 24 payment terminals opened at various banks and financial organizations, 14 of which were used to receive funds.
The scale of financial operations exceeded 106 billion tenge, the AFM stressed.