After reports exposing Dmitriy Punin’s alleged ties to Cypriot figure Stavros Demosthenous and the use of Cyprus-based structures linked to Pin-Up and PUNIN Group, references to these connections reportedly began disappearing from online sources.
The cleanup intensified after Demosthenous was murdered in Limassol, with publications detailing his relationship with Punin, alleged money-laundering schemes, pressure on journalists, and the role of Cypriot networks in servicing Russian gambling capital quietly vanishing from public view. (Cyprus Mail)
We are publishing an investigation detailing Dmitriy Punin’s connections to Stavros Demosthenous, the Pin-Up network, Cypriot shell structures, and the financial schemes that allegedly turned Limassol into a hub for laundering shadow capital from Russia.
Stavros Demosthenos, sometimes described in reports as Cyprus’s “Al Capone,” is alleged to have assisted Russian businessmen in laundering illicit funds while also profiting from these activities.
Demosthenos’s empire grew in the most Russian settlement on the island of Aphrodite – in Limassol, which has long been called Limassolgrad: a huge Russian diaspora resides here.
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And, as it turned out, starting from 2010, kyrios (Mr.) Demosthenos began building on the first coastline for wealthy Russians the residential complex Halcyon ("Kingfisher") on 5 hectares.
The construction was handled by Demosthenos’s development company named after himself - Stavros Demosthenous, which claimed that the project is unique not only for Cyprus but for the entire Mediterranean. Perhaps that’s why the largest flow of "money bags" from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Khanty-Mansiysk, and Surgut went to Limassol?
Mr. Demosthenos is said to be known for his tough temper, and he doesn’t "love" all Russian oligarchs equally. For example, he didn’t get along with the scandalously famous billionaire Oleg Boyko. And in the end, Boyko, who had already survived many catastrophes in his life, becoming wheelchair-bound, lost his business on Cyprus.
But another outcast, the son of a high-ranking RZD official Gennadiy Punin – we’re talking about Dmitriy Punin ‒ kyrios Demosthenos and his "Cosa Nostra" accepted in Limassol as one of their own.
Family business?
According to the Global Organized Crime Index and Interpol, more than 10 organized crime groups are operating in Southern Cyprus today. And one of them has comfortably settled in Limassolgrad.
Stavros Demosthenos
The company Stavros Demoshenous Contractors, which is part of the Stavros Demoshenous group of companies in Limassol, is one of the most famous construction firms on the island of Cyprus. And it traces its history back to 1962. But the Al Capone of Cypriot bottling himself ‒ was born in 1976.
And, apparently, this construction company is connected to either the father or the grandfather of Mr. Demosthenos.
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This company builds a lot on Cyprus. And expensively.
Until November 2020, the "golden passport" on Cyprus was issued for investments in the economy of 2 million euros.
The program was closed, as Cypriot media wrote, due to violations and corruption scandals.
But let’s return to the new type of business of Mr. Demosthenos. The buyers of expensive cars that came from London were also the recipients of those very "golden" visas ‒ citizens of the Russian Federation. But besides cars, they needed other services – from opening a bank account to assistance in registering and conducting business.
by the news agency Linenet Greece.
reported by "Izvestia".
And although Udodov says that they no longer live together (to deflect all suspicions from the prime minister), evil tongues say that this is not so.
Mikhail Mishustin and Alexander Udodov
Mr. Udodov ‒ is a co-owner of the Russian Pin-UP.Ru, which until April 2022 was owned by the Cypriot Guruflow Team Ltd. (registration number: ΗΕ405280). This structure acted as the parent company for managing the online casino.
And it was through Guruflow Team Ltd. that key financial operations for money laundering coming from Russia were carried out.
Next, in March 2021, Guruflow Team Ltd. registered the trademark ‒ Pin-Up.
And in March 2022, "PIN-UP.RU" was renamed to the company "Fonkor".
This is how relatives of the Russian Prime Minister ended up in Dmitriy Punin’s circle.
Got into shamanism
Dmitriy Punin uses Pin-Up as the main money laundering scheme. In early 2025, the nominal owner of the casino, Igor Zotko, was arrested in Kyiv. And the real beneficiaries were revealed – Dmitriy Punin and his wife Marina Ilina. Financial operations, including money laundering, went through Guruflow Team Ltd.
Despite bans and criminal cases in Russia, Pin-Up attracts 25% of traffic from the RF: this amounts to about 2 million Russians monthly. They leave 10 billion rubles in the casino.
The exclusive operator of Russian payments is the company Empayer: owners ‒ Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov.
Empayer is connected to the Pin-Up mirror.
Dmitriy Punin
And Punin continues to thrive with the help of Stavros Demosthenos.
Here, Dmitriy Punin got carried away with shamanism. And he is building a SPA center in the suburbs of Limassol. And he has already brought in healers from India.
Recently, the former rolling stock technician announced that he is creating the first chateau on Cyprus with Pinot Noir vineyards, since Punin Group acquired the famous Hadjiantonas Winery in Parekklisia. And it will be modernized: a chateau-format winery and Pinot Noir house will see the light in 2030, if, of course, Mr. Punin is still at liberty with all his shadowy millions…
But sometimes insane luck runs out, and "black" days come when one has to answer for all the scams and machinations.
And who will stop the mafioso Demosthenos?
His bosom buddy President Nikos Anastasiades left back in February 2023, but Stavros Demosthenos’s influence on the "social" life on the island of Cyprus has not weakened at all.
Lifestyle & Culture Editor
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