Who is behind the Diamond Pay payment system linked to Russia

Who is behind the Diamond Pay payment system linked to Russia

Who is behind the Diamond Pay payment system, which in a short period actually monopolized payments in the gambling market and took control of 70% of all gambling money in Ukraine?

As we already know, on July 19, the NBU suspended the provision of services, and on July 22, it revoked the license of Diamond Pay LLC, based on the control of this company by representatives of the Russian Federation.

It seems that it took the regulator a whole year and several media scandals to check this payment system and notice their criminal activities and real beneficiaries. But that’s how it is.

In order for the picture to be more complete, and for the officials involved in the Diamond Pay scheme to understand that their cooperation with the enemy will not go unnoticed by society, I am publishing several important fragments from the materials of the relevant authorities.

These episodes not only reveal the real ownership structure of Diamond Pay, but also demonstrate how its owners withdrew money from the company, avoided paying taxes and paid money to the family of Yevhen Yakhniy, a member of the KRAIL.

And so.

In 2023, with approximately 18 employees, Diamond Pay received net income from its activities of UAH 2,602,646,000, while the net profit of this payment system was approximately 9% of the income.

For comparison, Nova Poshta’s payment system NovaPay has a profit margin of about 50% of revenue.

"Diamond Pay underreports its profits by paying for fictitious services and unexplained payments to controlled individual entrepreneurs and even civil servants. There are more than forty such entities.

Here is a payment, according to which on 16.04.2024, the sole proprietor Liliya Yakhniy received UAH 800,000 from Diamond Pay LLC.

Interestingly, the person with the same data is an employee of the NBU Licensing Department and is the wife of Yevhen Yakhniy, a member of the KRAIL.

This is directly stated in Lilia Yakhniy’s declaration for 2023.

And here is another interesting payment by Diamond Pay, dated 1.04.2024, for UAH 350,000, to the individual entrepreneur Tagiev Rasim Surkhay Ogly.

Tagiev is not a member of KRAIL, but according to the relevant services, he is one of the real owners of the Diamond Pay payment system.

The formal owner of the payment system, through the company Diamond Consult LLC, is a Kharkiv resident, Viktoriya Holubyeva, who is the wife of a Kharkiv "businessman-converter", Oleksandr Cherdak, who is known in narrow circles.

At the same time, law enforcement agencies and the NBU believe that Cherdak and Holubyeva are only minority partners in this business.

The real owners of Diamond Pay are Maksym Sihalov and Rasim Surkhay Ogly Tagiev.

Maksym Sihalov is a former deputy of the Krasnohvardiysk District Council of Dnipro Oblast from the Front of Changes party and co-owns another payment system, E-pay, whose accounts were seized by the court in 2016 on suspicion of collaboration with LDPR militants.

Tagiyev Rasim Surkhay Ogly is a citizen of Azerbaijan and, in addition to controlling Diamond Pay, is considered by the relevant authorities to be a co-owner of the Vap-Capital exchange office network.

Tagiyev’s partners in the "exchangers" include another well-known "businessman" - Yevhen Pulya.

Interestingly, in 2017, Rasim Surkhay Ogly was detained by the SBU for giving a $35,000 bribe to Serhiy Shatskyi, head of the NBU’s payment systems department.

It was also a high-profile story.

Players in the gambling market confirm to me that Maksym Sihalov is the main owner of Diamond Pay and add that Sihalov has a brother in Russia, Ihor Sihalov, who owns an online casino called inbet.

Sources in the NBU also say that at the time of the decision to revoke Diamond Pay’s licence, they had evidence of the payment system’s financial ties to Sihalov and Russia.

We are waiting to see how KRAIL will react to the fact of direct financing of one of its members.

Moreover, the NBU’s position on Diamond Pay’s ties to Russia is clear.

Mr Rudyi, I believe that you should follow the example of the NBU and make a decision.

Be in the trend of fighting against everything Russian.