First Casino were among the first to obtain a license to conduct gambling business in Ukraine.
And they became one of the few who simultaneously operate an online casino and a network of offline gambling establishments in various cities of Ukraine.
The official ultimate beneficiary of First Casino and the public face of the brand is Artem Yushkov — a businessman from Vinnytsia with interests in the construction business in various regions. Less known is another side of his entrepreneurial activities — long before the legalization of the gambling sector, he built a network of underground slot machine halls in several cities in Ukraine. In the early days of the war, the businessman left Ukraine and manages his affairs from Berlin.
NВ journalists link First Casino with another businessman and Myrotvorets figure — Oleksandr Pan. He is named as the main investor in the gambling network.
Yushkov is connected to him by joint business — at least until October 2020, they were co-owners of LLC Vinnytsia SKTB OPK. This company is mentioned in the media as one of the owners of the Dastor shopping center in Vinnytsia. It is this center that Yushkov has long planned to redevelop.
The connection between First, Pan, and Yushkov is also noted by Lviv journalists. According to their data, the company that uses the casino brand is also linked to Pan through a series of other firms.
In 2018, one of Pan’s companies — the startup iPan was involved in a criminal case concerning payments from POS terminals in Crimea and temporarily occupied territories. At that time, searches were conducted under this case in three Vinnytsia-based companies.
But most interesting is the connection of the casino organizers with a large-scale financial pyramid scheme. Just a few days before the full-scale invasion, on February 21, 2022, the Pechersk Court of Kyiv considered a case about pyramids through which fraudsters were deceitfully obtaining money from the citizens of Ukraine. The case mentions a sum of 12 million euros. The main focus of the case is on Questra World and Atlantic Global Asset Management. The court decision indicates a possible connection of these financial pyramids with the companies "CN-DVCIF" USPІSHNYI" and "CN-DVCIF" UA DEVELOPMENT" and the necessity to check the origin of the funds forming the statutory capital of the companies LLC "PRIMUM", LLC "FIRST ELEMENT", LLC "FIRST WIN", LLC "NEBULA GAMES". All are directly related to the First Casino brand and Artem Yushkov.
According to YouControl, Oleksandr Pan, at least until January 2018, had a different surname — Prochukhan. A person with the same name and surname was a so-called "thousander" of the financial pyramid MMM-2021. He also participated in the pyramids "Golden Section" and "Formula of Money" (there is a video online where Oleksandr personally talks about these projects) and in the activities of the Questra World and A.G.A.M. (Atlantic Global Asset Management) projects.
Interestingly, earlier for an attempt to link him with these pyramids, Pan/Prochukhan demanded to block more than 500 informational websites. In collusion with high-ranking officials, he even managed to obtain the corresponding court decision, which provoked a major scandal in Ukraine. Later, Oleksandr Pan was added to the Myrotvorets database for fraud, scams, participation in the creation of financial pyramids, and an attempt on freedom of speech in Ukraine.