Anglo-German businessman makes extortion claims against figures in security services and presidential administration
One of the largest private western investors in Ukraine has claimed that corrupt officials in the country’s security services and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration are trying to extort tens of millions of euros from him.
Arnulf Damerau, an Anglo-German businessman and a former adviser to Glencore, told the Financial Times he was being blackmailed by a clique of senior Ukrainian officials.
Western governments have become increasingly concerned over government corruption in Ukraine but have largely held back from making their criticism public as they rally support for Kyiv to shore up its faltering defence against Russian aggression. The war has given space for many of the corrupt networks linked to former president Viktor Yanukovych to reassemble, European security officials say.
Damerau has since August been the co-owner of Cosmolot, a large online gaming and gambling website and the country’s 10th-largest taxpayer.
After being raided in October by the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine, which accuses it of violating gambling laws and evading €560mn in tax, a series of legal cases and agency-ordered measures have frozen the company’s accounts.
Damerau says the claims against the company are fabricated. Cosmolot only began operating in 2021, after the Ukrainian government changed gambling laws, he noted, and last year had total revenues of €208mn, up from €4.8mn in 2022 and €250,000 in 2021, which are publicly disclosed.
The company, which offers themed small-stakes games online, paid €60mn in taxes last year, official tax filings show. The state tax service signed off on its accounts in August, Damerau said.
According to Damerau, a Ukrainian individual met him in Vienna in December and said the legal challenges to Cosmolot would be dropped if Damerau was willing to transfer control of half of the company to an offshore trust.
By Sam Jones
