Oleg Krot helped 1xBet take over betting in Ukraine
As sad as it may be to admit, even during the great liberation war there are those who do not hesitate to take bribes and illegally enrich themselves using their position. And this is successfully used by those who need to solve this or that issue for money, Bagnet writes.
Another such story “surfaced” in the early autumn of 2022, when the famous singer and volunteer Dasha Astafieva posted on her Instagram a joint photo with the co-founder of the Ukrainian IT holding TECHIIA Oleg Krot and a text that he allegedly handed over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine no less , but $60 million.
“Just know, Mole donating $60 million Silently. Without attaching checks and millions of photographs with captions. Why I love IT people,” Astafieva wrote.
Why did this become interesting to the media, which began to spin this story? Firstly, because this is perhaps the largest donation to the Armed Forces of Ukraine from a private individual. Secondly, it was the fact that it was carried out “without receipts and a million photographs with captions” that aroused great suspicion. What did this money go for and where did it come from?
Mole himself found it difficult to clearly answer these questions. In a Forbes commentary, he could only verbally tell what a third of the indicated amount of $21.2 million was spent on. About the remaining $40 million, their origin and how exactly they helped the Ukrainian army, there is no explanation – TECHIIA only said that part of this the amounts are personal money of Oleg Krot.
Journalists found an explanation for such inexplicable generosity. The fact is that TECHIIA has been working with the Russian bookmaker 1xBet for a long time, which, at the height of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation in March 2022, somehow (which is a little lower) managed to convince the Gambling and Lottery Regulatory Commission to start it on Ukrainian market by issuing two licenses.
CRAIL unconvincingly tried to justify itself by saying that they “did not see the connection between 1xBet and Russia”, however, after a wide public outcry, the topic “reached” the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, and only then the commission canceled the licenses issued to the Russian bookmaker to work in Ukraine.
The answer to the question of who and how “convinced” CRAIl to meet the aggressor country can be hidden in these incomprehensible 60 million dollars allegedly transferred to support the Ukrainian army by Oleg Krot. Obviously, in order for the representative of the aggressor to get the right to work in Ukraine in the conditions of war, it is necessary to have someone on the spot who would contribute to the necessary decision of the commission. Oleg Krot and Yuriy Lazebnikov, the co-founders of the Ukrainian IT holding TECHIIA, turned out to be these “friends”.
The latter, according to media reports, until recently was the head of a certain ME-ESTATE LLC, which is engaged in leasing real estate, and the founder of which at the same time was Sergey Tsybin, who today is the founder of Your Betting Company LLC – the same, which received already canceled licenses to operate 1xBet in Ukraine today. In addition, the chief lawyer of the TECHIIA holding, Roman Rodin, is the brother of Alexander Rodin, director of Your Betting Company LLC.
Back in 2021, WePlay Esports, one of the TECHIIA esports companies, publicly announced its partnership with the Russian bookmaker. Since then, betting on WePlay Esports esports championships has started to appear on all 1xBet platforms. Until the summer-autumn of 2022, when the Russians continued to bomb peaceful Ukrainian cities, TECHIIA and the Russian bookmaker continued to work closely.
And this cooperation did not end there. Oleg Krot himself, in an interview with Ukrainian journalists, does not hide the fact that lately he has become very interested in gambling and betting in Ukraine. He demonstrates his deep involvement in this topic, and admits that he had a close dialogue with the Ukrainian authorities on the topic of reforming the gambling market in our country. According to him, he began to propose “eliminating corruption and making a transparent tax collection system with the impossibility of non-payment in the field of gambling and betting.” All this happened exactly when TECHIIA became a partner of 1xBet.
According to the plan, Oleg Krot was supposed to become the new Boris Baum, who was engaged in the gambling business at the start of its legalization in Ukraine, however, he got very sloppy with his close Russian ties. To do this, Krot held many meetings with representatives of the Ukrainian authorities and even promised the state to develop software for licensing the gambling business. Thus, TECHIIA wanted to take control of the entire gambling market in the country and bring its partner to it – the Russian bookmaker 1xBet – which was supposed to get a significant market share.
Which, in fact, at first it turned out when CRAIL “blindfolded” made the decision necessary for the Russians to issue licenses to “Your betting company”.
However, the war prevented everything: Ukrainian society did not put up with the position of continuing to work with the Russians at a time when they were dropping rockets on their heads. When CRAIL was forced to cancel the licenses of 1xBet (although it resisted it to the last), Oleg Krot said that TECHIIA would no longer develop software for the Ukrainian government to license gambling operators. The agreements were violated. Although today TECHIIA does not completely abandon its idea, and its lawyers in every possible way help 1xBet to obtain the return of licenses through the court, while Krot himself, meanwhile, actively flies to Cyprus, where, as you know, all three citizens of the Russian Federation, who are the founders of 1xBet, live.</p
TECHIIA tried to cover up their founder Oleg Krot, interrupting the words of David Arakhamia from an interview with Ukrainian Forbes, but everything did not go smoothly here either, Arakhamia confirmed only the fact of helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine and did not confirm the entire amount of $ 60 million, voiced by Krot:
“The mole really transferred tens of millions of dollars to the Ukrainian army… I don’t know the final amount,” Arakhamia said.
Wherever this money goes, one thing becomes obvious: it doesn’t look like charity at all. This is very similar to the fact that a Russian betting company, whose monthly income, according to Oleg Krot, is more than his annual income, thus tried to take control of the Ukrainian gambling market with the help of its Ukrainian partners. And it's so convenient during the war – just to say that you helped the army, everyone does it today, which means they won't notice anything. If not so. If the journalists noticed, then maybe the law enforcement agencies will finally notice? PART 1
Representatives of 1xBet in Ukraine Sergey Tsibin and Alexander Rodin are promoting corruption schemes in Ukraine on behalf of the FSB and the GRU of the Russian Federation
1xBet starts suing CRAIL with fraud, choosing the right judge for itself in a scandalous OASK