Who and how: Laundering millions from illegal bets in a Minsk casino

This investigation was prepared in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and with the support from the  CyberPartisans.

In the summer of 2021, H Casino – advertised by its owners as the largest casino in Belarus – opened in the Galleria Minsk multifunctional centre. In six months, it earned more than the established casinos in the Minsk market: profits exceeded $7.5 million. By 2023, H Casino had become the most profitable casino in Belarus, even though there were no preconditions for this, as the industry experienced a downturn at the end of the previous decade. 

The BIC discovered how H Casino achieved success amidst such conditions and what the KGB had to do with it.

The Turkish baron

The history of the H Casino traces back to Turkey. Local media reported in February 2022 that businessman Halil Falyalı had been murdered in northern Cyprus. Armed men fired at his car. The driver died at the scene. Falyalı received 16 wounds and died in a hospital.

The assassinated businessman had a large fortune and a criminal reputation. Falyalı owned the Les Ambassadeur casino and hotel in northern Cyprus and lived with his wife and three children in a mansion on the Mediterranean Sea.

In 2015, the United States issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of laundering proceeds of crime, including drug trafficking. [*] [*]

A 2022 report by Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board MASAK revealed the activities of Falyalı’s criminal organisation, which controlled a network of illegal betting sites. It reported nearly $50 million obtained illegally and stored in crypto wallets. [*]

What connection did Halil Falyalı have to the casino in the center of the Belarusian capital? In 2022, BIC sources reported that Falyali was an investor in the Minsk H Casino. He was not listed in the documents. The legal entity—OOO Igorny Kartel—which owns the casino, belongs to Turkish citizen Mustafa Egemen Şener. [*] [*]

OCCRP journalists found additional evidence of Falyalı’s connection with Şener and the Minsk H Casino. This was confirmed by Falyalı’s former financial director, Cemil Önal, who served time in a Dutch prison. The investigators contacted Önal’s lawyer in March 2024 after discovering audio recordings purportedly of Önal’s voice on the YouTube channel of a Turkish reporter in exile. It took five months to get permission to talk to the prisoner. The first conversation took place in August of 2024.

“Mustafa Egemen Şener is a friend and partner of Halil Falyalı. Casino (H) F in Minsk, Belarus, is owned by Mustafa Egemen Şener, in reality. But the Falyalı group is a 50% partner (having invested half of the amount to open the casino — ed.)," Önal explained.

BIC journalists found indirect evidence supporting Önal's claim that Şener and Falyalı were partners in the Minsk H Casino. CyberPartisans provided BIC with information on Şener crossing the Belarusian border. He travelled from Belarus to Ukraine and back together with Ayhan Büyüksarı, an employee of the Falyalı family’s Les Ambassadeurs hotel and casino. [*] [*] [*] [*] Judging by photos of Büyüksarı’s wife on her social media, he has visited H Casino several times. [*] According to the director of the establishment Andrei Prakharenka, Büyüksarı did not just visit the casino in Minsk: "Ayhan Büyüksarı worked at our casino and left Belarus, I think, in June last year. And never came back. He quit and left," the interlocutor said during a telephone conversation with a BIC reporter. We tried calling Büyüksarı, but he did not answer.

The business partnership between Şener and Falyalı was confirmed to the BIC on condition of anonymity by yet another source who worked in the Belarus casino industry. 

Bogus revenue

Why was the casino opened in our country? “Belarus did not impose a lockdown during the pandemic. No quarantine was announced,” Önal told reporters. “Why do we need a casino? Because you can launder money there.”

This was not the first indication that the owners of the Minsk H Casino are making money from “dirty” money transactions. Even before the casino was launched, the KGB received a letter:

“I have some files about the director of IGOR KARTEL (OOO Igorny Kartel— ed.), Mustafa Egemen Şener, which show how he transfers illegal money and bitcoins. I want to report him”, a person using the nickname yatko wrote to security forces in December 2020.

 We found this message among documents published by CyberPartisans, obtained after the hacking of the website of the State Security Committee of Belarus. As far as we know, no proceedings have been filed against Şener concerning this complaint. 

The money laundered at H Casino includes proceeds from illegal betting in Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, and other European countries, Önal said:

“Let’s say it comes from Poland to Belarus. It comes in cash. You report more revenue in the casino than your actual earnings. (Mustafa) launders it in his casino in Belarus. He then sends it to Dubai.”

Şener often used planes to transport large amounts of money, Önal said. According to data in an independent aviation database obtained by the BIC, a business jet owned by Şener made 41 flights to Belarus from September 2021 to January 2022. [*]

The money web

BIC and OCCRP journalists have uncovered how the system is likely structured and how it allows Turkish businessmen to make money by circumventing the law. In describing its functioning, we primarily rely on the words of Cemil Önal, whose credibility we cannot fully confirm. However, we have found numerous pieces of evidence supporting the truthfulness of details in his story.

Larsen Technologies, a company owned by Halil Falyalı’s underage children, obtained a license from the Turkish Cypriot administration in 2017 to operate betting on the BetCyp.com website. [*] But as Önal explained, Larsen Technologies is a front for a vast system for accepting illegal bets involving Minsk-based H Casino.

OCCRP journalists have established that Total Gaming Solutions registered the BetCyp.com website. [*] It also operates dozens of unlicensed online gambling sites, some of which were registered using the personal email of Falyalı family employee Ibrahim Tokkan. [*] This list includes the Betebet website with various variations of the name. It was blacklisted in Turkey. [*] The web resource is mentioned in the Adana Prosecutor’s Report for 2018. [*]

As Önal explained, Falyalı’s network uses teams of curators worldwide looking for people willing to make money. They are asked to accept payment using their bank card, crypto wallet, or payment platform account. This is how they get money from players using unlicensed online casinos. According to Turkey’s Financial Intelligence Service, over 100,000 such accounts are in the network, with more than 10,000 transactions processed in a minute. [*]

“Accounts are opened in the names of students, housewives, pensioners and minimum wage earners,” Turkey’s state news agency Anadolu Ajansı reported, citing a December 2024 indictment against Falyalı’s network.

When a player places a bet on an illegal website on the Internet, the money is not transferred to the casino but to the account of a person in the created network. They then must withdraw cash from an ATM and hand it over to the curator who set up the scheme. The account owner and the curator each receive 5%. The remaining 90% goes to Falyalı. Around $1.4 billion was moved using about 100 crypto wallets, according to data from a report by the Turkish financial crimes investigator and an analysis by OCCRP.

This cash is brought, for example, to Belarus and deposited into the cash desk for the Minsk H Casino. They make it look like a player came there, placed a bet, and lost the money. Fraudulent gains are passed off as the gambling establishment’s profits, and the money formally becomes “clean”.

If a player has questions or problems with payment, Turkish students, including at H Casino, provide technical support. Larsen Technologies sends them there.

“Mustafa [Egemen Şener] does not make real money in casinos. Mustafa finds these people with credit cards. He takes 10% for himself and gives 5% (half of the 10% — ed.) to the people who work for him. If he withdraws 1-2 million euros daily, he earns 100 thousand euros without doing anything,” Önal explained.

Önal, whose story has not been directly confirmed, claims Falyalı was raking in between €50 million and €60 million a month from his shady business activities worldwide. He received another €10 million for his illegal activities in Cyprus.

The scheme described by Önal is confirmed by the report of the Adana (Turkey) prosecutor, the report of the Turkish Financial Crimes Investigation Board MASAK, and the indictment of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

A uniformed coverup

The government closely monitors the gambling business in Belarus. For example, betting shop  revenue accounts, gambling tables, and slot machines are connected to a special computer counter system, enabling the relevant authorities to monitor cash flows. The casino uses video surveillance, including near the cash desks. In gambling venues, player identification by passport is mandatory. Casinos and slot machine halls are occasionally checked. Tax authorities and security forces have repeatedly uncovered illegal money-making schemes. 

The BIC found an explanation for why, despite such a strict approach, the activities of H Casino have not yet attracted the attention of authorities. It is likely that Belarusian law enforcement officers know about the illegal schemes but do not interfere. Among the evidence is the above-mentioned appeal to the KGB by a person named yatko.

Önal told an OCCRP journalist that a former employee of the Belarusian security forces is protecting H Casino. He could not give his last name. He said he saw this man when he spoke with Şener via video link.

The BIC investigators tried to find this person. Among the contacts of the owner and director of H Casino, we found a list of people associated with the KGB and the Ministry of Defense. For example, Şener travelled to Lithuania in November 2019 by car with Ihar Narkevich. [*] According to CyberPartisans, Narkevich worked as the head of the medical service of military unit 43194. This unit is part of a reconnaissance battalion. [*] [*]

H Casino director Andrei Prakharenka crossed the border 232 times by car with influential security officials. [*] [*] Among his fellow travelers were former judge of the Belarusian Military Court Aliaksei Shchepetau and Defense Ministry retirees Mikalai Kankalovich and Aleksandr Shleverda. [*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [*] [*]

Prakharenka is connected with the above-mentioned persons not only through trips but also through work in the now-closed gambling establishment Olympic Casino Bel.

Prakharenka is also acquainted with Viktar Marakhin, a retired Defense Ministry employee who held positions in the Presidential Administration, the House of Representatives of the National Assembly, and Belaeronavigatsiya. [*] [*] Their joint trips abroad confirm this. Prakharenka also traveled with Sviataslau Savitski, the head doctor of the Belorusochka sanatorium, where a band of Wagner Group soldiers was detained before the 2020 presidential election. Savitski was previously the head of the Main Military Clinical Hospital. [*] [*]

Prakharenka crossed the border 62 times and worked at the Olympic Casino Bel with Vitali Matys, a Aleksandr Lukashenko security service employee. [*] [*] [*] We suspected that this person was most likely involved in covering up illegal activities. Through OCCRP journalists, we gave a photo of Matys (and several others listed above) to the lawyer to show to his client. Önal recognised Matys as an influential security officer and patron.

“This is a KGB agent in Belarus who is with Mustafa around the clock, traveling abroad on Mustafa’s behalf. This man was always next to Mustafa when we talked on video. (When I asked) who he is, what kind of person he is, (Mustafa replied:) ‘This is a former KGB agent who provides my security in the casino, in this hotel (DoubleTree by Hilton), and protects me in all matters. He is a very nice man. If you come over, I will ask him to meet you, sort out your affairs and even help you get citizenship,” Önal said.

When asked what Matys did — ”administrative and paperwork, or is he a person who could, for example, pay the president?”—  Önal clarified that Matys made “payments to state officials.”

The involvement of Lukashenko’s security guard in the casino is “a connection between Lukashenko’s regime and all these cases,” Uladzimir Zhyhar, a representative of the BelPol association, said to the BIC:

“Who else can be trusted with that activity but Lukashenko’s security guard, a PSS (Presidential Security Service) employee, proven over the years? This is similar to what we saw with the Vostok residence and how Lukashenko’s personal guard, his adjutant, controls it. (The Vostok residence is a Lukashenko waterfront family compound on Zaslavsky Reservoir.)

“It’s the same story here. We’re talking about how Lukashenko builds his system. He only trusts people who are proven and reliable, in his eyes, to make a profit.”

A BIC journalist reached Vital Matys, but he hung up. We asked the director of H Casino, Andrei Prakharenka, about the role of the former Lukashenko Security Service employee in the casino's operations. In a telephone conversation with the BIC journalist, he said that Matys "never worked there". He added that Matys could not have accompanied Mustafa Şener everywhere because "Şener hasn't been in Belarus for over a year".

Prakharenka also stated that that he has been working at H Casino since November 11, 2023, and he was unaware of any money laundering from illegal betting at H Casino and that this was the first time he had heard the name Halil Falyalı: "H Casino is not connected to any betting platforms. We have a gambling licence in Belarus. We don't take bets from anyone, especially not from betting companies. <...> You are asking me about something that doesn't exist".

In the same conversation, Prakharenka indirectly confirmed his links to influential people in Belarus. He mentioned that he was the director of OOO City Entertainment Group, the legal entity that used to own the casino in the President Hotel in Minsk. This hotel is managed by the Presidential Property Management Department, which, until mid-2021, was headed by Aleksandr Lukashenko's associate, Viktar Sheiman.

In 2022, City Entertainment Group was incorporated into Igorny Kartel, the owner of the H Casino.

The important connections

Önal also pointed to other possible patrons of the H Casino owners. According to him, Şener has common business interests with the owners of the Galleria Minsk multifunctional centre, where the H Casino is located. They, in turn, are connected with influential people. We found evidence of this.

The company SOOO Galereya Kontsept, the legal owner of Galleria Minsk, may have high-ranking patrons in Belarus and Russia. Documents from the Cyprus company registry indicate that DG Galleria Minsk Limited, the owner of SOOO Galereya Kontsept, received loans from Şener’s business partner, Zubair Aliyev, in 2018. [*] [*] [*]

The beneficiary of Galereya Kontsept is Timur Murtuzaliev through the companies Galleria Concept Blr Limited, DG Galleria Minsk Limited, registered in Cyprus, and Oceans Solutions Limited, registered in Nevis. [*] [*] [*] [*] [*] Murtuzaliev is the son of Russian businessman Omar Murtuzaliev, a man who received an award from Vladimir Putin and has political connections, including in Belarus. Judging by the numerous photos on the website of the Russian Wrestling Federation, Murtuzaliev Sr. has friendly relations with Uladzimir Kheifets, a former member of the Minsk Council of Deputies. In 2015 and 2016, Kheifets ran in the London Half Marathon for the TIKO Foundation team. At that time, the foundation was owned by Omar and Timur Murtuzalievs.

We also found Uladzimir Kheifets in the registration documents for the Galereya Kontsept. He is a minority shareholder of DG Galleria Minsk and director of Galereya Kontsept. [*] [*]

The likelihood of links between the owners of Galereya Kontsept and influential individuals is reinforced by the fact that during the construction of the shopping centre in 2012, President Lukashenko issued a decree granting the company tax and customs benefits, some of which were classified. [*] [*] [*]

Ilia Shumanov, who was serving as the Director of the anti-corruption NGO Transparency International – Russia in exile at the time of the interview recording, assessed the likelihood of security forces or officials being involved in the casino’s activities. He noted that even in activities that are less profitable than casinos, the government’s influence is always profound.

“There is not a single area of activity in Belarus that is not somehow connected to the Lukashenko family or the law enforcement agencies. This means that any industry that generates high revenues becomes an object of interest for the state in a broader sense. In particular, it is either Lukashenko’s family or Lukashenko’s inner circle, I.e. his pockets,” Shumanov explained, but added that he is not an expert on Belarus. 

Where is the money?

Şener invests the “dividends” from the gambling business in Dubai, buying up real estate. According to a Dubai leak, he may have owned 90 apartments, 70 of which were worth a total of approximately $177.6 million. We checked with the Dubai Land Department to see who currently owns these properties., Şener is listed as the owner of only one apartment. The rest belong to Sultan Rashid Abdullah Rashid Al Shene.

The surname Al Shene is similar to the surname Şener. We have reason to believe that this may be the new name of the owner of H Casino in an Emirati passport. Al Shene’s phone number is linked to a Microsoft account in the name of “Egemen Şener” with his photo. The number is also linked to his name in the GetContact service. When we called it and asked if we were speaking with Şener, the person on the other end confirmed it.

An indictment by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office lists Falyalı’s wife, Özge Taşker Falyalı, as one of the 35 leaders of the criminal business empire. In 2023, Özge Falyalı acquired a dozen properties in Dubai worth at least $53 million. Several of her apartments are in the same building as Şener’s home.

His common-law wife, Belarusian Volha Kotava, owns a 67 sq. m. apartment in Minsk and a 2020 Porsche.

We sent enquiries to Özge Taşker, Omar and Timur Murtuzaliev and Uladzimir Kheifetz asking them to comment on the facts set out in the investigation. We also sent an inquiry to the KGB, asking whether the security services were aware of the illegal activities of the casino owners and whether Vital Matys had assisted in covering them up. At the time of publication, we had not received any responses. We also managed to reach Mustafa Şener by phone, but he hung up.