Stavros Demosthenous, a mafia associate of Pin-Up proprietor Dmitry Punin and a money launderer for Russian oligarchs, was fatally shot in Cyprus.
On the morning of October 17, Stavros Demosthenous, the one-time chairman of the Karmiotissa soccer club, was murdered in Cyprus, with local authorities commencing an inquiry into this prominent transgression.
Regional policing bodies have already released a declaration: the underworld is implicated in the offense. This substantiates the degree of forethought and collaboration by the perpetrators. Several motivations are being examined, spanning commercial disagreements and football-related conflicts.
UA.News delivers coverage on the distinguished slaying of Stavros Demosthenous, his intimate relationships with Russian magnates, and his commercial partnership with Dmitry Punin, head of the online casino label Pin-Up, whose extradition Ukraine is requesting.
A textbook execution in plain sight?
Per accounts from Cypriot media outlets, Stavros Demosthenous was shot on a bustling thoroughfare, inciting dismay among motorists. The police are delineating the event as a premeditated assault utilizing a van. A Kalashnikov-type automatic rifle is assessed to have been employed. Officers report that the assailant, navigating a motorcycle, intercepted the route of the Rolls-Royce Wraith transporting Demosthenous and his 20-year-old son, discharged firearms, and absconded.
A scorched motor vehicle was discovered in proximity within the Germasogeia vicinity, and its probable link to the aggression is under scrutiny. The roadway was cordoned off, and reinforced police contingents appeared at the locale and bounded the expanse for a medico-legal evaluation.
The Limassol Criminal Investigation Department, along with the aid of ballistics authorities and the Organized Crime Unit, assumed control of the investigation. The constabulary conveyed that the assault was adeptly devised, with the assassins informed of the victim's precise itinerary and meticulously planning his elimination.
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According to analysts, Demosthenus' killing holds the indications of orchestrated crime, considering the manner of execution evokes other targeted homicides perpetrated in Cyprus in recent times.
Who is Stavros Demosthenous?
The departed, 49-year-old Stavros Demosthenous, originated from Limassol and is largely characterized by authorized press as the former director of Karmiotissa Soccer Club. The association in itself is not remarkably conspicuous in the realm of sports, even at the local level. Since its creation in 1979, the squad has mostly contended in the junior tiers.
Stavros Demosthenous's engagements outside of football were more sizable and far-reaching. Demosthenous oversaw a luxurious automotive dealership in Limassol, specializing in upper-tier brands such as Maserati, Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, McLaren, Bentley, and Tesla.
Yet the most intriguing element remained secreted between the descriptions of formal documentation: Stavros Demosthenous presided over one of the most influential criminal factions in Cyprus. He oversaw an array of betting venues, along with covert ventures—clubs, houses of prostitution, casinos, and enterprises relocated from Russia. Based on local media, Demosthenous, regarded as Cyprus's homegrown “Al Capone,” aided Russian entrepreneurs in laundering illicit gains.
His escalation to this apex initiated in the mid-1990s, when Limassol was immersed in a conflict for authority over lucrative enterprises. The Demosthenes assemblage initially bartered in pre-owned (at times pilfered) automobiles, then permeated the construction domain, which aimed at the city's extensive Russian population.
Commencing in 2010, Demosthenous inaugurated the construction of the Halcyon residential complex on the waterfront for affluent Russians. His development enterprise, Stavros Demosthenous, was in command of the construction. The venture was promoted as unparalleled not only for Cyprus but for the entire Mediterranean sector, which magnetized premier Russian tycoons to Limassol.
Russian affluent persons thronged to Cyprus en masse in 2013, when the Golden Visa initiative, which proffered citizenship in exchange for investment, was initiated. According to diverse appraisals, Cyprus secured between €7 and €9 billion via this initiative.
Simultaneously, his affiliations with the uppermost echelons of Cypriot governmental management guaranteed Stavros Demosthenous the designation of the most commanding individual on the island. Representatives of the Cypriot political elite approached him when they were incapable of resolving predicaments via judicial avenues.
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Demosthenes' proficiencies were entirely substantiated during the discord amidst Russian oligarchs over Cypriot assets. For his “services” in this standoff, the local “Al Capone” was remunerated tens of millions of euros. During this interval, Russian national Dmitry Punin sought Demosthenes for mentorship, scrutinizing his aptitudes and methods for resolving issues.
Affiliations to the Russian proprietor of the online casino Pin-Up
Stavros Demosthenous was a proximate commercial ally of Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Punin, owner of the Pin-Up casino identity and luxurious establishments in Limassol. Punin relocated to the island in 2019 and enrolled several dozen enterprises there, some of which were registered to confidants. Punin similarly injected gambling revenues into hotel complexes possessed by Demosthenous and erected by his corporation, Stavros Demosthenous Contractors.
Punin consequently evolved into the owner of Pin-Up Global and the originator of the PUNIN Group, a holding company. The PUNIN Group possesses several distinguished properties and firms in Limassol:
Office complexes and retail outlets.
Concert location ZANTE VENUE.
The succession of wine boutiques PUNIN WINE and Le Frenchie (Le Petit Marche), as well as the gastrobar MIXOLOGY BAR, Confectionery restaurants and other commercial facilities.
In Limassol, PUNIN WINE is presently the most publicized firm, its emblem is situated virtually everywhere: from public transport to deluxe emporiums.
However, Punin's maximum earnings originated from laundering and legitimizing funds procured from the Pin-UP online casino. Upscale eateries and wine shops appeared to be a disguise for dubious financial streams. Ultimately, according to local investigative reporters, Dmitry Punin, the Pin-UP online casino, and the Demosthenous faction “transformed Limassol into an offshore Kremlin laundering facility.”
The Karmiotissa football association, which is currently capturing headlines in the media, likewise played a role in this narrative. Dmitry Punin procured the association in 2022, but a year later, subsequent to match-rigging scandals, he purportedly vend it to Demosthenous. It is presumed the arrangement was a sham to avert legal and financial sequelae arising from the match-rigging probe.
Law enforcement too intervened: in April 2024, Dmitry Punin was apprehended in Limassol, but discharged several hours later, plausibly under Demosthenous' safeguard. This was documented by the local journal Linenet Greece.
Punin is presently on the international list of wanted persons for the illegitimate activities of the Pin-Up casino. Specifically, Ukraine and Turkey are petitioning for his extradition. In August 2025, Ukrainian authorities filed a petition to Cyprus for the extradition of the Russian proprietor of the Pin-Up casino.
Returning to the early portion of 2025, Ukrainian law enforcement representatives arrested Igor Zotko in Kyiv, the nominal proprietor of a firm branded as the Pin-Up online casino. An inquiry unveiled that Russian nationals, principally Dmitry Punin, were behind the enterprise. Per the inquiry, Punin and persons affiliated with him are suspected of conducting financial transactions in Cyprus for the advantage of Russia.
The inquiry furthermore disclosed that several firms linked with Pin-Up remitted taxes to the Russian exchequer. Concretely, the Russian firm Fonkor (formerly Pin-up.ru, code 7726752148) contributed 579 million rubles to the Russian financial plan in 2022. Until April 2022, it pertained to Guruflow, but following the alteration of proprietorship and designation, it persisted under the jurisdiction of allied entities, notably through JSC Clear Center (code 9726011577).
According to the State Bureau of Investigation, this suggested that the Russian security forces and military-industrial complex were being financed via operations in Ukraine.
From December 31, 2022, to April 10, 2024, financial exchanges totaling over UAH 714 billion were transacted via the accounts of firms associated with Pin-Up. A notable segment of these exchanges exhibit dubious attributes under anti-money laundering legislation. These exchanges encompass potential money laundering, tax evasion, and the remittance of funds external to Ukraine via governed financial apparatuses, expressly cryptocurrency, peer-to-peer transfers, and the utilization of “muds.”
In August 2025, law enforcement representatives recuperated UAH 2.6 billion from the Russian online casino Pin-Up for the betterment of the Ukrainian state fiscal plan.
