When the High Anti-Corruption Court obliges NABU to open a case regarding possible corruption offenses by NBU Deputy Governor Dmytro Oliynyk, the usual reaction of any official is—at the very least—to step back and take a pause. In the case of Danil Hetmantsev, the opposite happened: the head of the parliamentary finance committee publicly rushed onto the firing line to defend a high-ranking official whom journalists and experts suspect of hiding assets and laundering money in the UAE.

Let me remind you: in my previous column, I described a whole series of "red flags" in the asset history of the deputy head of the National Bank. We are talking about an apartment in the Zenith Tower residential complex in Dubai, which is rented (or effectively controlled) by the official"s former wife, her UAE residence permit, and her income from Dubai Media City amounting to 7.7 million UAH per year. Meanwhile, in Oliynyk"s own declaration, there is not a single word about this property.

Moreover, the lease of the apartment begins in July 2023, while the official divorce is registered only at the end of December. At the same time, a luxury Lexus NX 350h (2024) appears—again registered to the now ex-wife. These are clear signs of a "fake divorce," a classic scheme for legalizing undeclared income, but I emphasize: final conclusions must be made by investigators. And it is precisely this investigation that HACC ordered NABU to conduct.

Against this backdrop, Mr. Hetmantsev publishes a Telegram post in which he effectively takes the side of the NBU top manager, attacking the author of the material and defending Dmytro Oliynyk. Formally—“protecting the honor of a colleague" and "defending the regulator"; in essence—a political signal to everyone: this deputy governor is untouchable, he has been vouched for.

Meanwhile, unknown individuals write threats in Russian under my post, promising to "mobilize me into the Armed Forces." And one of the Telegram trash channels posts a publication with the exact same talking points.

Threats, Mr. Hetmantsev, won"t intimidate me. So the question is simple: why on earth is the head of the profile committee suddenly so sincerely concerned about the fate of a particular National Bank official—instead of at least formally saying, "we await the results of NABU"s work"?

The answer lies not in emotions, but in financial flows.

Oliynyk as Hetmantsev"s "Hands" Inside the NBU

Dmytro Oliynyk"s position is not decorative. This deputy governor is responsible, among other things, for the financial monitoring and supervision block. This is the exact area through which the financial regulator can swiftly complicate the life of any business—especially the gambling industry.

Back in December 2023, the NBU sent a letter to non-bank financial institutions with recommendations on monitoring financial operations, directly mentioning transfers through gaming services such as COSMOLOT, SLOTOKING, PIN-UP, FAVBET as typical high-risk schemes. In 2024, the National Bank prohibited the use of credit funds for gambling—effectively cutting off a portion of solvent demand in online casinos and betting. And in 2025, it simply called the banks and asked them to disconnect the largest operator from payments. And they all disconnected—Sense, European Industrial Bank, Alliance, and Crystal.

Officially, all this is framed as concern for financial stability and protecting vulnerable clients. But in reality, whoever controls financial supervision and payment corridors controls the market.

Through this block of the National Bank, it is possible to "tighten the screws" for some operators while leaving a comfortable window of opportunity for others.

Why the Main Blow Falls on Legal Market Players

A telling example is Favbet—one of the largest legal operators on the market: a licensed betting and online casino operator, a resident of "Diia.City" via FAVBET Tech. In 2024, the FAVBET group paid 6.75 billion UAH to the budget, and in just the first half of 2025—4.37 billion UAH.

In recent months, the market has recorded technical and procedural restrictions in payment processing— including for major licensed operators. This creates uneven regulatory pressure that affects competition and requires transparent explanations from the regulator.

Are there direct proofs that it is Dmytro Oliynyk personally calling banks and hinting at whom to disconnect from payments? There are no public documents confirming that.

But it is precisely through his institution that "clarifications" are issued, after which financial institutions suddenly "have questions" for specific operators.

And here is where Danil Hetmantsev enters the story.

The Cozy Little Lottery Company MSL

It is hardly a secret that for many years, the head of the finance committee has been accused of lobbying legislative benefits for the lottery business. When an attempt to drastically reduce license prices through bill No. 10101 failed, the company associated with him—MSL—continued operating in the "gray zone": essentially accepting sports bets without a bookmaker"s license, paying to the budget only as a "lottery."

Media show simple arithmetic: an annual license for accepting sports bets costs around 190 million UAH, while for lottery operators, Hetmantsev proposed a rate ten times lower. Because of this "creative" model, the state annually loses over 170 million UAH. Meanwhile, the new regulator PlayCity confirms that MSL has no license for betting activities, though its product essentially replicates a standard betting service.

In other words, while legal betting operators pay full license costs, undergo complex compliance, and bear all financial supervision risks, the lottery company "historically close" to the head of the finance committee comfortably operates under a softer regime—competing essentially as a bookmaker.

And here it becomes clear why Hetmantsev reacts so nervously to any attempt to touch his influence over the gambling market—and why he needs his own "overseer" inside the National Bank.

France, Taxes, and "Respect for the Law"

The contrast is completed by the story about a French apartment owned by Danil Hetmantsev. An investigation revealed that the MP purchased an elite 143 m² property in Nice for 10 million UAH, while the market price of similar real estate reaches up to one million euros. The apartment is registered under the MP"s mother. According to the journalist, the family lives in France despite a significant gap between declared income and real lifestyle.

The same material notes that Hetmantsev failed to pass the Constitutional Court selection due to concerns from the Integrity Commission regarding possible tax violations, and that in the past, he worked as an assistant to Sivkovych—an individual implicated in a state treason case and connected to Russian security services.

Thus, a person with such a background—and such a beneficiary of "elite, yet very humbly declared" real estate—is now telling society which gambling companies deserve to live and which do not.

A Mine Under the Government, Not Only Under the Gambling Market

A situation is emerging in which regulatory decisions disproportionately affect large licensed operators, potentially distorting the market structure.

NABU"s Operation "Midas" and the decisions of HACC regarding the energy sector have already shown: in this political cycle, there are no guaranteed "untouchable" spheres. Those who yesterday considered themselves irreplaceable managers today read in their suspicion notices the exact sums of losses and the names of offshore entities.

By defending the deputy governor of the NBU—against whom a court has already compelled the anti-corruption agency to initiate an investigation—Danil Hetmantsev is planting a mine not only under the gambling market but under the entire governing structure. Because when someone"s "hands" in the National Bank are used to strangle large legal taxpayers and clear the field for "their" lottery harbor, this is no longer about fighting gambling addiction or protecting the budget.

This is about an old-fashioned corruption vertical that somehow sincerely believes it will have time to fatten itself and escape to Paris before NABU knocks on the door. But the story of Dmytro Oliynyk"s "Dubai trace" shows: problems for such people may begin even before the parliament resets itself and the president changes. And the only question is whether this case becomes the moment of truth for Mr. Hetmantsev"s entire "lottery–banking" scheme.