Tengrinws.kz — Three foreign nationals have been placed on the international wanted list by Astana's Economic Investigation Department. Two of them may be linked to a case involving a $1 billion online casino operation and illegal cross-border transfers.
Who has been placed on the wanted list
Three Ukrainians have been sought for 10 days by Kazakhstan's Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA). This information appeared on the portal of the Committee on Legal Statistics and Special Records of the Prosecutor General's Office.
The FMA initiated the search, which is being conducted by the Economic Investigation Department for Astana.
The wanted database identifies Ivan Shevchenko, Olena Suvorova, and Vadym Gordiivskyi. The specific charges against them have not been specified.
Data from the qamqor.gov.kz portal
However, the names of two of the suspects have frequently appeared in media reports.
Billion-dollar online casino
Vadym Gordiivskyi and Olena Suvorova have been frequently mentioned in foreign publications.
The story began in December 2025. At that time, Kazakhstan's FMA announced it had dismantled an online casino scheme. Fraudsters used "gray" terminals and fictitious contracts to disguise casino payments as legitimate transfers.
The volume of illegal operations was found to exceed 600 billion tenge ($1 billion). Furthermore, call center organizers established an affiliate program used to accept and withdraw funds in cryptocurrency. Their turnover exceeded 200 million USDT (approximately 103 billion tenge).
At that time, over 70 searches were conducted. The FMA reported that nine people were already in pre-trial detention, including a top manager from the Association of Payment Organizations. Another eight foreign organizers were set to be placed on the international wanted list.
Following the news, foreign media began reporting that the case was linked to Olena Suvorova and Vadym Gordiivskyi.
For instance, the Ukrainian outlet Vlasti wrote that the key organizer of the mix-coding scheme (a type of shadow financial scheme involving the concealment of the true purpose of payments – Ed.) is Ukrainian national Vadym Ivanovych Gordiivskyi. According to media reports, he allegedly used the Kazakh company Marginplus for these purposes, with Olena Suvorova acting as an accomplice. Another Ukrainian portal, Antikor:
"Kazakhstani law enforcement agencies have dealt a serious blow to illegal financial schemes by freezing accounts and suspending all transactions of Marginplus. This organization was identified as a primary link in the money laundering system established by Ukrainian citizens Vadym Gordiivskyi, Larysa Ivchenko, and Olena Suvorova. Their activities were aimed at processing and legalizing profits obtained from the Russian online casinos Redcore and Pin-Up, for the benefit of their owner, Dmitry Punin."
Background on Gordiivskyi and Suvorova
According to the Antikor portal, Gordiivskyi was formerly a high-ranking Ukrainian official. In the late 2000s, he served as the deputy head of the Boryspil District Administration, and in 2012, he headed the Odesa Region road service.
Vadym Gordiivskyi also served as the director of the financial company Alta Capital, which provided bail money for defendants.
Photo from znaj.ua
According to the publication, he fled Ukraine using forged documents after the local Ministry of Internal Affairs placed him on a wanted list and law enforcement opened criminal cases against him for fraud and financial crimes.
Olena Suvorova, according to the same Antikor portal, describes herself as an entrepreneur, crypto investor, and trader with over five years of experience.
Photo from politeka
She reportedly worked in the FinTech sector for about 10 years, and in 2021, she launched an international crypto transfer business and founded the LemonCoin crypto academy.