Allegations of Cross-border tax evasion, illegal market servicing and deceptive corporate transfers @ Mansion Group Gibraltar/UK

In 2024 and 2025, a high-ranking former executive of the Mansion Group submitted extensive evidence to the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), including internal board minutes and intercompany transactions.

The allegations span from 2012 to 2021 and involve:

• Cross-border tax evasion involving Israel, Gibraltar, and the UK
• Use of Mossack Fonseca & Co. and Curacao-based entities to hide beneficial ownership
• Employment restructurings designed to disguise illegal market servicing
• Deceptive corporate transfers aimed at avoiding tax liabilities in multiple jurisdictions 

UK – NO ACTION - IT HAS BEEN REPORTED THAT:-

• Despite the former executive urging the UKGC to refer the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), no investigation was initiated. 
• The evidence submitted dates to misconduct between 2012 and 2021 when Mansion Group was a fully licensed UKGC operator. In his correspondence, the former employee explicitly urged the Commission to refer the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), given the potential breaches of UK criminal law. And yet, what response did he receive?
  • We can no longer utilise our regulatory powers.”
• That was the final answer from Damian Kenny in March 2025. The justification? Mansion Group had voluntarily surrendered its UK licence.
• The Commission instead advised the whistleblower to “contact alternative agencies.” In other words, after a UKGC licensee allegedly engaged in fraud, tax evasion and criminal restructuring, the regulator believes its responsibilities ended when the licence was dropped.

GIBRALTAR COURT CASE

Olive Press [12 June 2024] revealed that the accusations have emerged during an ongoing secret legal battle in the Gibraltar Supreme Court between the remnants of the Mansion Group and their former CEO, Karel Manasco, 43.

• Manasco has accused the now-defunct gaming giant of engaging in a scandalous practice known as ‘grey area gaming’.
• This involves illegal trading in various countries and led to the alleged defrauding of multiple governments, including Austria and Germany.
• Manasco alleges the activity ‘constitutes the true and undisclosed profits’ of the Mansion Group in Europe, something it denies.
• The alarming list of alleged unlawful acts includes operating without appropriate licences, circumventing regulations, dodging taxes, and online gambling in countries where it is illegal.
• In addition to its core market in the UK, the allegations cover activities in many countries, including France, South Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Spain.
• Untraceable covert companies were allegedly set up in the Caribbean islands of Curacao in 2011 – some through the infamous law firm Mossack Fonseca, made notorious by the Panama Papers scandal.
• One company, Casino Midas, was allegedly set up by Mansion in 2011 to operate in France after the country decided to outlaw offshore online casinos.
• The regulatory noose started to tighten further as country after country rolled out harsher and stricter rules around online gaming.
• It’s alleged that Mansion continued to profit surreptitiously until 2015, when Casino Midas was hurriedly shut down after French regulators blacklisted the company and threatened to investigate it.
• In an email to the Olive Press, a Mansion spokesperson firmly denied the allegations and labelled them ‘unsubstantiated’.
• The allegations arose as Gibraltarian Manasco was publicly accused of taking huge bonuses while splashing company money on luxury cars and high-value watches.
• Mansion eventually won a worldwide freezing order (WFO) against Manasco for €5 million in 2023.
• The former Mansion CEO insisted the claims are ‘total lies’, with Mansion simply trying to ‘destroy’ him after he began to blow the whistle on its business practices.

ASIAN BEGINNINGS

• Mansion Group, the European offshoot of Asian brand M88, operated the recognisable names of Casino.com, Mansion Casino and Slots Heaven from their Gibraltar head office.
• Thought to be owned by Indonesian billionaire Putera Sampoerna and his wife Kathleen Chow Liem, it is not the first time the group has been in the news for the wrong reasons.
• Back in 2020, Premier League football club AFC Bournemouth terminated its sponsorship deal after the UK Gambling Commission launched an investigation into Mansion Group.
• The commission announced investigating ‘various aspects’ of Mansion Group’s model and operations.
• But by September 2023, Mansion’s key businesses would be permanently closed, having gradually wound up all its previous casino brands over the following year.
• While the actual ownership of the Mansion has long been murky, it is thought to be owned by Indonesian billionaire Putera Sampoerna

CONNECTIONS - Gibraltar’s then-Finance and Gaming Minister, Albert Isola CBE.

The Olive Press also revealed that from 2011 to 2021, during the period of alleged wrongdoing, Mansion Group had links to Gibraltar’s then-Finance and Gaming Minister, Albert Isola CBE.

• The then-minister’s family law firm, Isolas, which Albert Isola runs with his brother Peter Isola, represented Mansion Group in their legal matters in Gibraltar, including the legal action against Manasco.
• Mansion even operated from office space in the controversial Europort building owned by Isolas.
• The controversial building came under scrutiny after an Isola family trust bought it from Rifaat al-Assad, the sanctioned uncle of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, for a knockdown price in 2018.
• The judge who sanctioned Isolas’ highly controversial purchase from a sanctioned general responsible for the massacre of thousands of civilians in Syria, Chief Justice Anthony Dudley, is the same judge presiding over the case between Mansion and Manasco.

ISOLA'S SISTER COMPANY, FIDUCIARY

• Meanwhile, Isola's sister company, Fiduciary, was even more closely involved with Mansion Group, helping its opaque ownership behind the scenes with trust management services.
• Fiduciary chairman Peter Isola, brother of the then-minister, also sat on the board of fellow Gibraltar gaming company Entain (previously GVC) as a non-executive director.
• Gibraltar’s ex-minister for finance and gaming, Albert Isola CBE, had extensive commercial links to Mansion
• Peter Isola resigned from the remuneration committee of Entain – home to Highstreet names such as Ladbrokes and Coral – after shareholders revolted over executive pay.
• In an email to the Olive Press, Fiduciary executive Joey Imossi insisted he could not speak about the case.
• “With respect to Mr Manasco and the case in general, we refer you to the various published judgments of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar.”
• He denied any conflict had arisen through
• Albert Isola’s role as Finance and Gaming Minister and Isola's senior partner as he was ‘on sabbatical at the time he served as Minister’.
• He further clarified:
• “Fiduciary provides secretarial management services to Mansion at arm’s length in the usual manner as a corporate services provider.
• “Peter Isola was never removed from the board of Entain and resigned during 2022 after serving on the board for six years,”  

ENTAIN WAS CHARGED WITH A CRIMINAL OFFENCE BY UK PROSECUTORS IN 2023

• Entain was charged with a criminal offence by UK prosecutors in 2023 over historical bribery allegations at its Turkish subsidiary.
• Despite agreeing to pay £615 million in fines in the UK while owning a Gibraltar gaming licence, the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner did not investigate.
• The charges were related to the company's failure to prevent bribery, specifically under Section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010. The offences occurred between July 2011 and December 2017, primarily in Turkey.
• Entain reached a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which included a financial penalty and disgorgement of profits totalling £585 million, along with additional payments for costs and a charitable donation.
• This agreement allowed Entain to avoid immediate prosecution, provided they comply with the terms of the DPA over four years.

LACK OF ACTION

• Manasco’s allegations against Mansion have also yet to be officially investigated by the Gibraltar Gambling Commission.
• When they were flagged to Commissioner Andrew Lyman in July 2023, he wrote to Manasco’s lawyer stating that ‘the bare assertions are insufficient to trigger an investigation immediately.’
• The lack of action has frustrated some observers, especially considering proactive measures in other jurisdictions, such as the UK and France.
• The case may raise further questions about the regulation of Gibraltar’s mammoth online gaming sector, which, according to the government, accounts for 28% of the jurisdiction’s GDP.
• The Gibraltar Gaming Commissioner, Andrew Lyman, has so far not moved to investigate the allegations against Mansion
• “The Government and the Gambling Commissioner are aware of certain allegations made by Mr Manasco in the context of a case brought by Mansion against Mr Manasco as respondent,”
• a spokesman told the Olive Press.
• “There are ongoing civil proceedings; as such, it would be inappropriate to comment.”
• However, Imossi separately insisted the Gambling Commissioner ‘sanctioned several gaming companies whilst Albert Isola was the Minister’.

SHUT DOWN

• Albert Isola, who appointed Lyman in 2017, stood down from his ministerial role overseeing the gaming sector and returned to his post at his law firm, Isolas, in September 2023.
• Around the same time, Mansion shut down all its online casino brands and ceased trading in Europe by October 2023, losing 200 jobs.
• Both moves came alarmingly as Manasco prepared to submit detailed documents describing Mansion’s alleged ‘grey area gaming’ to the court.
• Manasco started at Mansion as a 29-year-old financial controller in 2010 before being fast-tracked in 2015 to replace the previous CEO, who had been forced out. Manasco was just 36.
• Under his watch, Manasco claims that, by his admission, Mansion engaged in a range of illicit behaviour.
• This included defrauding affiliate partners and allegedly cheating the German and Austrian governments out of taxes.
• However, Manasco claims his refusal to cooperate with similar schemes involving the Israeli market resulted in Mansion forcing him out in 2021.

The civil action by Mansion against Manasco continues.

References

• 12 June 2024 - https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2024/06/12/exclusive-explosive-allegations-against-gaming-firm-mansion-shake-gibraltar-and-raise-questions-about-business-links-with-former-finance-minister/
• 10 SEPT 2024 - https://igaming.org/casino-news/mansion-group-wins-court-case-against-ex-ceo-manasco-for-over-e2-5-million/
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ukgc-publishes-new-warnings-what-old-crimes-michael-schmitt-rmnie/?trackingId=UNf%2BZtSXb4Jv8i%2FJHyMFgQ%3D%3D
•  Rex v Entain PLC - Deferred Prosecution Agreement https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/rex-v-entain-plc-deferred-prosecution-agreement
•  First ever CPS deferred prosecution agreement for £615 million https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/first-ever-cps-deferred-prosecution-agreement-ps615-million