Lilith Wittmann, a Berlin-based hacker and cybersecurity researcher, gained access to the licensing system of the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA). Among the documents that formed the basis of a joint investigation by several media outlets were details on approximately 800 beneficiaries of roughly 650 licensed companies.
The investigation revealed the official owners of entities linked to well-known gambling platforms.
In particular, Nick van Gorsel, a 30-year-old Dutch citizen, is listed as one of the two co-owners of Prolific Trade NV, the company behind the Brazilian website Blaze. In 2024, he declared assets worth €800 million to the regulator. His partner, American Nicholas Bugg, declared €500 million.
The beneficial owner of Novatech Solutions NV, which is linked to Qbet, is listed as Joanna Tinaco Arenas, a manager from Manila. In March, the Dutch regulator fined Novatech nearly €25 million. The site was among the largest illegal gambling platforms in the country. In April, the state-owned company Nederlandse Loterij filed a lawsuit against Qbet.
Serbian Mladen Vuković is officially listed as the sole owner of Medium Rare NV, the company behind Stake. He has declared assets worth over $1 billion. However, Stake’s publicly known founders, Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, are not mentioned in the license application. At the same time, CGA staff uncovered loans and payments totaling tens and hundreds of millions of dollars from Medium Rare to entities linked to Craven and Tehrani.
Another disclosed beneficial owner is Ukrainian citizen Igor Gnedash, who is listed as the CEO and owner of Caecus NV, a company linked to 1xBet. According to the documents, his annual income is just under €10 million.
Three Russians—Roman Semyokhin, Dmitry Kazorin, and the late Sergey Karshkov—are considered the publicly known founders of 1xBet. At the same time, the documents do not reveal any connection between Gnedash and them. CGA assessors themselves speculated that 1xBet might have “several owners,” but the company was granted a license in 2024 nonetheless.
To obtain the documents, Wittmann registered on the CGA portal in December under the name of a manager at a Dutch trust office known to the regulator, but provided her own Gmail address. Within a few days, she gained access to the system, after which she downloaded software that allowed her to take control of the portal and download the documents stored there.
According to the researchers, while reviewing applications, CGA evaluators regularly identified serious issues with licensees but ultimately concluded time and again that “the license could be issued.”
The CGA did not dispute the findings but stated that the gambling sector is undergoing a transition period following the adoption of a new law in 2024. Companies were given time to gradually comply with the new requirements, rather than having their licenses immediately revoked if issues arose.
Stake, 1xBet, Blaze, and Novatech did not provide journalists with substantive responses to their inquiries. Representatives of their affiliated trust offices cited confidentiality.
Earlier, hackers claimed to have attacked Revolut using the prefecture’s PEC email.
The hackers demanded a record ransom from Revolut after stealing customer data.
In the UK, Revolut disclosed customer data due to fraudulent requests made on behalf of a government agency — TechCrunch.
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