1.2 billion UAH in alleged tax arrears, 700 million UAH seized and more than 30 mirror sites. In February 2024, Ukraine’s Economic Security Bureau described this in a single press release. Neither the company nor Sergei Tokarev were named by the agency in that release. Two and a half years later, the publication ‘Sledstvie’ linked the same sum to Tokarev, Mikhail Zborovsky, Cosmolot and Cosmobet. Court documents reveal a payment of 180 million hryvnias relating to a separate ‘Spacex’ case. We have examined why these sums cannot be lumped together into a single narrative and what the evidence regarding Cosmobet actually reveals. [2] [3] [23]
This is a follow-up to our previous article On Sergey Tokarev, Roosh, Lucky Labs and the launch of ‘Diya.City’. At the time, we examined the public support for the IT project and the residency documents. Now we have found a discrepancy in the licensing register. In it, the contract for the development of the Cosmobet platform is dated almost two months before the registration of the company named as a party to the contract. [1] [4] [5]
A billion in the headline. What the BEB actually reported
In a statement dated 5 February 2024, the BEB described an alleged scheme involving a major licence holder. According to investigators, websites resembling the casino’s official site were used, and the purpose of payments was altered in the transactions. 1.2 billion UAH — the amount of the alleged tax arrears. 700 million UAH — the amount of funds which, according to the agency, have been frozen. It is not possible to deduce from these two figures the amount that has been paid into the budget, or the debt of a specific entrepreneur. [3]
In 2024, Forbes Ukraine linked the case to ‘Spacix’, the operator of Cosmolot, and quoted the company’s response. The company rejected the allegations and stated that it was contesting the decisions. According to the company, the websites mentioned by the BEB are not associated with it. [20]
In an August article by ‘Sledstvie’, the names of Tokarev and Zborovsky, the brands Cosmolot and Cosmobet, and the theory that the business was being channelled through Cypriot entities were added to this story. The press release cited by the publication confirms the scale of the investigators’ allegations against an unnamed licence holder. This document does not confirm Tokarev’s personal involvement or the transfer of liabilities to Cosmobet. In the verified materials, the editorial team found no documents linking Tokarev or ‘Neurolink’ to the ‘Spacex’ tax case. [2] [3] [7]
What happened with the tax case? The 180 million UAH that appears in the payment documents
In the ruling of 1 February 2024 in case No. 761/4060/24, both the operator and the case number are named: ‘Spacix’, the Cosmolot brand, case No. 72023000500000026. The court document details exactly what the investigation was looking into and mentions the freezing of funds in the company’s accounts as far back as January. This allows us to trace the procedural history beyond the February press release. [3] [20] [24]
On 29 August 2025, in case No. 761/35538/25, the court stated that ‘Spacix’ had transferred to the budget 180,003,938.33 UAH taxes and duties relating to a specific case for 2024. The ruling lists the payment instructions. The court exempted the director from criminal liability in connection with the compensation for damages and closed the separate proceedings. It is precisely this amount that is confirmed by the payment documents described by the court. This relates to the specific incident in question. There is no separate calculation in these documents that would explain its relationship to the 1.2 billion hryvnias mentioned in the 2024 press release. [3] [23] [25]
In August 2025, the court lifted one of the freezing orders on ‘Spacex’s’ accounts, and on 8 December rejected a new application by the prosecutor to freeze funds in the main proceedings. The court referred to the documents it had examined and the fact that, at that time, the company had no outstanding tax liabilities to the state budget. These are decisions concerning the freezing of specific assets. It does not follow from them that the main proceedings have been closed in their entirety. [25] [26]
Cosmobet. Whose name is on the licence and when did the ownership change?
The operator of Cosmobet is the Ukrainian limited liability company ‘Neurolink’, EGRPOU 45356504. The regulator adopted Decision No. 168 to issue a licence on 21 March 2024. ‘Neurolink’ is a separate legal entity, and its direct shareholder is Neoplay LLC, EGRPOU 44923380. These two codes allow us to verify the corporate structure without having to search by brand name alone. [4] [5] [6] [9]
| Date | What the document records |
|---|---|
| 29.09.2023 | The date of the contract for the development of Cosmobet software in the PlayCity register. [4] |
| 23.11.2023 | Date of registration of ‘Neurolink’ according to the Unified State Register. [5] |
| 21.03.2024 | Decision to grant ‘Neurolink’ a licence for an online casino. [4] [9] |
| 25.03.2024 | Following the ‘Neurolink’ affair, Mikhail Zborovsky was replaced as director by Vadim Klimenko. [5] |
| 30.04.2025 | The register records the appointment of Daria Zalozna as director of ‘Neurolink’. [5] |
| 22.05.2025 | He was listed as a member of Andriy Dobrovolskyi’s ‘Neoplea’ in place of Mykhailo Zborovskyi. [6] |
In the publicly available entry for ‘Neurolink’, Dobrovolsky is listed as the ultimate beneficial owner, whilst ‘Neoplay’ is listed as a participant. The date of 22 May relates to a change in ‘Neoplay’s’ shareholder. The register shows that the entry has been amended. To establish the terms under which the share was transferred and whether any assets from other businesses were transferred, the transaction documents are required. Information about a director or shareholder alone is insufficient to determine who financed specific transactions and to whom payments were made. [5] [6]
The business also has its own financial history. According to published financial statements from ‘Neurolink’, for the year 2025 the company reported Approximately 45.54 million UAH in net losses. This is the financial result of a specific legal entity for a specific year. It cannot be used to calculate betting turnover, the amount of tax payable or the cash flows of another operator. If the theory concerns a business transfer, the key points to check are the contracts for the transfer of the software platform, obligations to players or rights to assets. [2] [5]
The Cosmobet contract is dated prior to the registration of ‘Neurolink’
In the section on Cosmobet’s software, the regulator refers to a contract dated 29 September 2023 between ‘Neurolink’ and ‘Game Reseller’ LLC. In ‘Neurolink’s’ profile, the date of registration is — 23 November 2023… 55 days later. The licence decision is dated 21 March 2024, whilst the licence itself in the table is dated 26 March. The discrepancy relates to the entry regarding the contract listed in the licence register. [4] [5]
The reason can be established from the contract submitted to the regulator. There may have been an error in the table. It is possible that there are documents relating to the specified contract which explain the change of party or the rights to the software. The response itself does not provide this information. PlayCity can provide the correct date, the parties to the contract and the document on the basis of which the information was entered into the register. These details, together with an extract from the licensing file, are sufficient for verification. [4] [5]
This same column provides the first opportunity to compare claims regarding a shared platform. For Cosmobet, the regulator cited a contract with ‘Game Reseller’; for Cosmolot, it cited a contract between ‘Spacex’ and ‘Playsoft’ dated 1 April 2025. The entries relate to different dates and name different companies. From these, it is possible to identify the stated counterparties. To determine whether there has actually been a transfer of software, the player database or obligations, contracts and transfer deeds are required. [2] [4]
Two courts have examined the allegations regarding Cosmobet’s owner
On 25 July 2025, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv heard Tokarev’s claim for the protection of his honour and business reputation; the case No. 761/12757/25. The court found specific allegations that Tokarev owned or controlled Cosmolot and set up Cosmobet through a front man to be unfounded. In the case file, the court found no evidence of a link between Tokarev and ‘Neurolink’ and ‘Neople’. StopCor published a retraction. This is the court’s assessment of those publications and the evidence presented in the case. [7] [8]
On 20 August 2026, following the publication of ‘The Investigation’, the Commercial Court of Zhytomyr Oblast handed down a ruling on another claim, No. 906/225/26The claimant was ‘Neurolink’, and the defendants were two non-governmental organisations. The court of first instance ruled that specific claims made in the ‘Non-Stop’ publication—namely, that Tokarev was promoting his gambling business through Cosmobet and that Zborovskyi was a front man—were unfounded. This case concerned a different article. We were unable to find any information in verified sources regarding the final appeal ruling on this case. [2] [9]
Why a VAKS case number does not yet mean that anyone has been charged
In September 2026, criminal proceedings documents mentioning this case also came to light. For example, in a ruling by the High Anti-Corruption Court dated 28 September On the case No. 991/11769/26 Statements by a civil society organisation linking ‘SpaceX’ and ‘Neuralink’ have been paraphrased. An isolated excerpt from the reasoning could easily be mistaken for the court’s position. The operative part of the judgement dismisses the appeals against the failure to enter information into the register of pre-trial investigations. On 23 September, the High Anti-Corruption Court also dismissed another appeal, case No. 991/11812/26. [10] [11]
An examination of the court record begins with the question of who exactly is speaking in the quoted paragraph: the claimant, the investigator or the judge. Here, the judges were deciding whether to order the authorities to enter the information contained in the applications. These rulings do not establish who controls the casino, nor do they allege any suspicion against Tokarev. [10] [11]
Cosmolot. The regulator had concerns regarding payments
Cosmolot in PlayCity’s documents — Spacix LLC, EGRPOU 43635954On 22 April 2026, the regulator revoked the company’s licence by Decision No. 139-R. PlayCity reported that it had uncovered transactions involving peer-to-peer (P2P) payments and account top-ups using other people’s cards, and announced financial penalties of 8.6 and 4.3 million UAH for these breaches respectively. On 24 April, the Kyiv District Administrative Court suspended the decision to revoke the licence in case No. 320/16898/26. In June, the appeal court upheld the interim measure. In October, the court of first instance rejected ‘Spacex’s’ application for a computer forensic examination. These are the stages of the administrative dispute. We have not found any decisions on the merits regarding the revocation or confirmation of the regulator’s measures in the materials reviewed. [12] [13] [14] [21] [22]
Here is the verified account of the payments. There is a named operator, a regulatory decision number and a court document recording its suspension. It is not possible to apply these conclusions to Cosmobet or Tokarev simply because they appear in the same media report. To establish such a link, new documents are required showing who carried out the transactions and on behalf of which legal entity. [2] [7] [9] [12] [14]
Sergey Tokarev, Lucky Labs and Roosh. What question does ‘Diya.City’ need to answer?
On Roosh’s official profile, Tokarev is listed as a co-founder and general partner. DOU previously investigated his previous work with Lucky Labs. In 2021, the publication reported on the 2016 searches and published Tokarev’s statement. He stated that in 2017, together with Rustam Gilfanov, he sold the brand and ceased joint projects with him. This material helps to trace his business history. On its own, it does not establish ownership of the Cosmolot or Cosmobet brands. [17] [18]
In February 2022, at the launch of ‘Dія.City’, Mikhail Fedorov spoke publicly about Roosh’s application and Tokarev’s involvement in discussions regarding the initiative. According to the company registration details, Roosh LLC, EGRPOU 44390633, became a resident 16 March 2022. Citizenship and ownership structure are important within the limits of the law’s requirements for participants in the scheme. In its 2025 ruling, the court referred to a document confirming the termination of Tokarev’s Russian citizenship on 8 September 2023. This provides grounds for requesting documents detailing the ownership structure as at the date of admission, rather than applying a later entry from 2022. [1] [7] [15] [16] [19]
Sanctions cases require the same level of accuracy. In its 2025 ruling, the court noted that the tax identification number of the individual in the sanctions record differed from that of the claimant. Therefore, figures and surnames from older publications are no substitute for checking the specific entry. A separate question for the Ministry of Digital Transformation: on the basis of which documents did the ministry verify ‘Rush’ on the date of entry, and how did it record the result? [7] [15] [16] [19]
Which documents will settle the matter?
- BEB. How do the 1.2 billion UAH from the February press release relate to the 180 million UAH paid in connection with the specific case? What has become of the main proceedings No. 72023000500000026? [3] [23] [25]
- PlayCity and ‘Neurolink’. What date appears on the contract for the Cosmobet software, and who signed it? When did the regulator receive information about the change in the ultimate beneficial owner? [4] [5] [6]
- The Ministry of Digital Transformation and Roosh. The date and grounds for the admission of Ruush LLC to ‘Diya.City’, details of the ownership structure as at that date, and the verification procedure in force when the scheme was launched. [15] [16] [19]
The editorial team is prepared to publish the positions of Sergei Tokarev, Mikhail Zborovsky, Roosh, ‘Neurolink’, ‘Spacex’ and the relevant authorities. If you have any documents relating to settlements, the transfer of shares or the transfer of assets between operators, please specify the legal entity, the date and the document number. In this case, the decisive document will be the one that links a specific transaction to a specific individual.
