Police in the Belarusian city of Mogilev are stepping up a crackdown on gambling-related crime after a businessman allegedly squandered a private business loan at an online casino.
Officers in the city have launched a criminal case against the unnamed 42-year-old business owner, the Belarusian media outlet Mogilev News reported.
Law enforcement officials said the business owner asked a 53-year-old acquaintance for money. The entrepreneur promised to use the funds to develop his business and vowed to “repay the debt promptly.”
Trusting his acquaintance, the man duly agreed and handed over 28,000 Belarusian rubles, worth almost $10,000. But after receiving the funds, the entrepreneur allegedly broke off communication.
Belarusian Entrepreneur Faces Fraud Wrap
Police said a subsequent investigation revealed the business owner “had no intention of repaying the money” and had since “lost all of the money on an online casino platform.”
Investigators say they plan to charge the suspect with fraud-related offenses.
The development comes just weeks after the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Mogilev branch charged a corporate accountant with siphoning money out of her employer’s accounts to gamble online.
The accused, also aged 42, worked as the chief accountant at a private-sector firm based in Mogilev.
Gambling Crime Crackdown
Ministry officials told the Belarusian media outlet Onliner that the woman had access to the company’s electronic accounts.
They reportedly found evidence that she had made multiple transfers from corporate accounts to her own accounts. In many cases, she logged the transfers as “bonus payments,” the ministry added.
The woman was also responsible for preparing financial reports, officials explained. This reportedly allowed her to “enter false information” and “hide financial shortages.”
In total, the accountant allegedly embezzled 185,000 Belarusian rubles, worth over $65,000. Police said she spent the entire sum on losing bets at an online casino.
The ministry plans to charge her with “embezzlement through abuse of office on an especially large scale.” If convicted, the woman faces up to 12 years in prison.
In the capital Minsk, meanwhile, a self-styled crypto investment guru reportedly stole and then spent thousands of dollars’ worth of his clients’ money at land-based casinos last year.
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