Astana, 31 October. Cards for Dmitry Punin and Marina Ilyina, described as the owners of the Pin-Up betting company, have appeared in the Prosecutor General’s Office’s wanted-persons database: the Financial Monitoring Agency initiated the notice, journalist Mikhail Kozachkov reported.
According to his report, Punin and Ilyina are spouses who live in Cyprus; the agency names them as the main organisers of an illegal online casino. As Ak Zhaiyk writes, the company Bonami LLP, which obtained a state licence for betting under the brand PIN-UP.KZ, was used as cover. The wanted notice relates to a case of illegal gambling and money laundering, Ak Zhaiyk reports; the amount Kazakhstanis lost is estimated at 100 billion tenge, Moi Gorod writes.
What it means: Earlier the wanted notices concerned the scheme’s organisers; now the database names people linked to the brand itself. A wanted notice is not a verdict: charges and the position of those sought are not given in the reports found.
What we know now: The cards of Punin and Ilyina appeared in the Prosecutor General’s Office’s database on 31 October; the initiator is the agency. In February 2026 the agency officially said that, in the investigation’s version, the online casino under the brands PIN-UP and PINCO was organised by a group acting from abroad, KZ24 writes. The case began after a publication by the Telegram channel The Gambler in early 2025; in it, employees of second-tier banks were detained who, in the investigation’s version, helped foreigners move money out. The article of the charge and whether extradition from Cyprus will be requested have not been officially named.
Background: The Prosecutor General’s Office earlier said that the organisers of PIN-UP and PINCO, put on an international wanted list, would be held responsible on the principle “extradite or prosecute”, NewTimes.kz reports. In June 2025 Kyiv imposed sanctions on Punin and nine companies: Ukrainian authorities suspect them of aiding an aggressor state, OCCRP wrote.
We have also reported that the head of the microlender Express Zaim was put on a wanted list: 43,000 borrowers were deceived.
