Curacao Data Breach Exposes Owners Behind 646 Licensed Gambling Operators

A data breach at Curacao's gambling regulator, the Curacao Gaming Authority (CGA), has exposed ownership records for around 800 individuals linked to 646 licensed operators, according to an investigation published by Follow the Money.

Berlin based cybersecurity researcher Lilith Wittmann accessed the CGA's licensee portal in December 2025 and extracted tens of thousands of confidential documents. The cache also included records from Malta's gambling regulator and corporate registry filings from Cyprus, Malta and Gibraltar. The material formed the basis of "Casino Secrets," a joint investigation by Follow the Money alongside Norwegian, German and Swedish outlets NRK, NDR, SVT and Austrian publication Jetzt.at.

Stake and 1xBet Ownership Questioned by Regulator

The leaked documents name Serbian national Mladen Vukovic as the owner of Medium Rare NV, the licensed entity behind crypto casino Stake, with a declared net worth of more than $1 billion. According to the documents, the CGA doubted Vukovic was the sole owner after identifying payments to entities connected to Stake's publicly known founders, Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani.

A similar pattern emerged around 1xBet. The documents list Ukrainian national Igor Gnedash as CEO and owner of Caecus NV, the licensed entity for 1xBet, with declared annual income of around 10 million euros. The CGA reportedly suspected the brand has multiple owners and sought clarification on its ties to publicly associated founders Roman Semiokhin and Dmitry Kazorin, as well as Sergey Karshkov, who died in 2023.

Other Operators Named in Leaked Records

The documents also identify the ultimate beneficial owner of Novatech Solutions NV, the entity behind Qbet and 55Bet, as 42 year old Filipino national Joanna Tinaco Arenas, whose declared 1.5 million dollar net worth has no disclosed source in the records.

For Prolific Trade NV, the licensed entity behind crypto casino Blaze, the documents list Dutch national Nick van Gorsel with a declared net worth of 800 million euros and American national Nicholas Bogg with 500 million euros as owners.

The leak further points to Thomas Kalman as a key figure behind Platincasino, described in the investigation as Germany's largest illegal operator. The brand's tax liability is estimated at 250 million euros following the transfer of its licensed entity to Curacao. A Norwegian national with the surname Reed is named as the owner of the Curacao entity operating CasinoFriday, which is unlicensed in Norway.

CGA Says Breach Is Contained, Investigation Ongoing

The CGA confirmed the breach on September 17, 2026, saying the threat had been localized and that a review was continuing. The regulator's licensee portal has now been implicated in two separate incidents involving Wittmann, who also gained access to systems belonging to Malta's regulator, the Malta Gaming Authority, in March 2026.

None of the named individuals or operators has publicly responded to the specific ownership claims in the leaked documents.