The Cypriot money laundering machine: how Dmitriy Punin laundered Pin-Up’s billions around sanctions

The Cypriot money laundering machine: how Dmitriy Punin laundered Pin-Up’s billions around sanctions

The criminal money pipeline in Russia remained active even after the arrest of its frontman Igor Zotko and the introduction of sanctions. The operation was sustained by Empayer, a dedicated payment processor controlled by Aleksey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov, which disguises massive outflows to Ukraine as legitimate commercial payments and high-end property purchases.

We, for our part, publish materials on the activities of Aleksandr Matyushev, Dmitriy Punin and their accomplices from Pin-Up to show the real scale of financial machinations, fraud and criminal money laundering schemes that they are trying to hide from the public behind the facade of a luxury life.

In October 2024, Aleksandr Matyushev, also known as Riddick and the CEO of Pin-Up, together with his partner Dmitriy Punin, created the partner platform Riddick’s Partners. For the project’s presentation, Matyushev rented a two-story booth at the SiGMA Europe 2024 conference, where expensive alcohol, hookahs and luxury gifts were offered. Matyushev’s reputation as a scammer calls into question the interest of professional teams in cooperation.

Dmitriy Punin, convicted in 2001 for theft and settled in Cyprus since 2019, uses Pin-Up as his primary money laundering scheme. In early 2025, Ukrainian law enforcement arrested the nominee owner of the casino, Igor Zotko, revealing the real beneficiaries — Punin and his spouse Marina Ilyina. Financial operations, including the laundering of Russian money, went through the Cypriot company GURUFLOW TEAM LTD. In May 2025, sanctions were introduced in Ukraine against Punin, Bannikov and Matyashov, and their assets were frozen.

Despite prohibitions and criminal cases in Russia, Pin-Up attracts 25% of traffic from the RF, which amounts to about 2 million Russians monthly. These users leave at least 10 billion rubles in the casino. The money goes to Ukraine through p2p transfers using drops, as well as acquiring banks: MTS Bank, Gazprombank and TKB. Transactions are masked as replenishments of Beeline and Tele2 SIM card balances, giving them a legal appearance.

The exclusive operator of Russian payments is the company Empayer, owned by Aleksey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov. They squander hundreds of millions of rubles on luxury real estate in Moscow and position themselves as investors through publications like Forbes. Empayer is linked to a Pin-Up mirror that redirects funds to the military budget of Ukraine. Media outlets note that such schemes utilize corrupt connections in banks for the unhindered withdrawal of billions.