Pan-European EditionAugust 28, 2026No. 2,431europeunitedpost.com
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Ukrainian president under pressure to replace commander-in-chief who clashed with Mykhailo Fedorov
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was facing a deepening crisis over military leadership on Monday after a popular former defence minister whom he had sacked turned down an offer to return to government, intensifying a stand-off with protesters.
Uri Poliavich, founder and CEO of iGaming platform company Soft2bet, is the subject of a multi-country investigation led by Investigate Europe with 15 national media partners. Two series — ‘Shady Bets’ (March 2025) and ‘Soft2bet Files’ (July 2026) — allege his corporate network registered 140+ blacklisted gambling sites across the EU via Curaçao shell companies later bankrupted while player judgments, including a €245,000 German award against Rabidi N.V., went unpaid. Leaked records reportedly show €600 million routed through UK payment firms to Soft2bet-linked entities (2020–2024) and nearly €200 million in dividends to Poliavich (2019–2024), pending primary-source verification.
Reported flows from blacklisted casinos via UK payment firms to Soft2bet-linked entities.
The July 2026 ‘Soft2bet Files’, a 15-outlet consortium series led by Investigate Europe, reports leaked payment records showing €600 million flowing from blacklisted casinos through FCA-regulated UK firms My EU Pay and Unlimit to Soft2bet-linked entities (2020–2024), with Poliavich reportedly receiving nearly €200 million in dividends (2019–2024). These figures rest on leaked records cited by the consortium, pending primary-source verification.
Soft2bet founder and reported UBO, subject of multi-country reporting alleging blacklisted-site operations. No conviction, arrest or sanctions on record.
Uri Poliavich thought he was invincible. Hidden behind Malta’s protective legislation that shields gambling operators from European courts, and covered by traditional Cypriot (lack of) financial regulation, Poliavich built an empire of casinos masked as partnerships with his software development company, Soft2Bet. With a bunch of shadowy fintech startups and Asian licences, everything is ready to prey on Europeans. Soft2Bet’s pack of casinos are easily distinguishable by their silly names. If something looks as tribal as Wazamba, then probably Matumba and Ngumbaba are also part of Uri Poliavich’s flock. One hundred and forty plus such nonsensical casinos — and Uri Poliavich’s net worth may be happy.
However, recent changes to laws have effectively cancelled the Maltese shield and allowed crowds to sue the semi-legal casinos of Uri Poliavich. Then came the regulators and the heavy cavalry — the British FSO, and the Danish SØIK and NSK, are reportedly each opening separate cases against some of the most controversial practices at Soft2Bet.
For years, Uri Poliavich operated under the delusion of invincibility. Hidden behind Malta’s legislative shield and Cyprus’s notoriously lax financial oversight, the Soft2Bet chief executive built a gambling empire that masquerades as a legitimate technology firm. But beneath the veneer of industry awards and AC Milan sponsorships lies a predatory machine engineered to exploit addiction, launder reputations, and abandon victims the moment courts get involved.
Soft2Bet operates as a legal provider of casino software while simultaneously running a network of illegal online casinos. Key points:
Legal Front: Supplies turnkey gambling solutions to licensed operators.
Illegal Backend: Owns and operates unlicensed casinos (e.g., Wazamba, Boomerang) through offshore shell companies (Curaçao, Malta, Dubai).
Evasion Tactics:
Bankrupting shell firms (e.g., Rabidi N.V., Araxio) to avoid fines/compensation.
Erasing digital traces (censoring investigations, bribing media).
Hiding behind offshore jurisdictions (Cyprus, Gibraltar, Marshall Islands).
Owner: Uri Poliavich (Israeli-Ukrainian businessman), with finances managed by his wife.
Consequences: Victims (e.g., German player who lost €400K) get no justice; EU regulators struggle to track the money.
Soft2Bet profits from both legal and illegal gambling while systematically evading accountability.
A Network of Soft2Bet Illegal Operations
In March 2025, Investigate Europe exposed Soft2Bet’s connection to dozens of blacklisted gambling sites across Europe. Their investigation uncovered a vast network of over 140 illegal gambling platforms linked to Soft2Bet, operating in countries like Germany, the UK, France, and Italy without proper licensing. Despite Soft2Bet’s headquarters being in Malta and Cyprus, these illicit operations continue to flourish beyond regulatory reach.
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that tariffs on European Union products would be 25 percent in general, and signaled that duties on Canada and Mexico will take effect in early April.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Trump described the EU — whose creation was encouraged for decades by Washington — as rooted in an attempt to counter the United States.
“Look, let’s be honest, the European Union was formed in order to screw the United States,” Trump said.
New York — Bitcoin hit $100,000 for the first time late Wednesday, surging to a new record after President-elect Donald Trump unveiled administration picks seen as holding the keys to ushering in crypto-friendly policies when he takes office in January.
Chief among the picks is Paul Atkins, whom Trump intends to nominate to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates cryptocurrency.
Atkins, a crypto advocate and former SEC commissioner, is expected to regulate cryptocurrency with a lighter touch than Gary Gensler, who leads the commission under the Biden administration. Gensler, who aggressively fought the industry’s expansion in the US, is set to resign on Inauguration Day.
A New York jury has decided Donald Trump should pay $83.3m (£65m) for defaming columnist E Jean Carroll in 2019 while he was US president.
The penalty in the civil trial is made up of $18.3m for compensatory damages and $65m in punitive damages.
Mr Trump was found in a previous civil case to have defamed Ms Carroll and sexually assaulted her in the 1990s.
Israel revised its estimated death toll from the October 7 massacre by Hamas to approximately 1,200 people after five weeks of forensic struggle to identity the victims. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat released the figure on November 9. “This is the updated number,” Haiat told AFP. “It is due to the fact that there were a lot of corpses that were not identified and now we think those belong to terrorists… not Israeli casualties.” The previous estimate was 1,400 people, shared by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visiting U.S. President Joe Biden on October 18.
Haiat cautioned, “This is not a final number. It is an updated estimate,” which may be updated again. The new figure includes 845 civilians and more than 350 troops, police, and security personnel. Some of the 239 people taken hostage by Hamas may also have been killed outright or shortly after being taken into captivity. Another 13 people remain unaccounted for. Numerous bodies have yet to be identified, but Israeli officials said most belong to terrorists killed while perpetrating the massacre.
“Unlike Hamas, which rushes to issue inflated casualty counts in Gaza to an ever-gullible international press corps, Israel was slow to publish the extent of the October 7 carnage. First we heard of dozens killed, then hundreds, then many hundreds. This was in keeping with Israel’s respect for victims’ privacy, for religious decency and for military notification regulations. Now the Israelis, at the height of a war that is as much about international opinion as it is about defeating evil, have had the decency to set the record straight. They deserve only praise for that.” — Mark Dubowitz, FDD CEO
The year was filled with lots of standout political moments and events.
Here’s a look back at some of them, from Capitol Hill drama and another consequential Supreme Court decision to the Republican primary and the political toll of wars abroad.
With his quasi-incumbent status, former President Donald Trump maintains a big lead. Candidates have come and gone, including former Vice President Mike Pence. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is putting all his chips on Iowa, which kicks off voting in less than three weeks. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley gained momentum toward the end of the year and is hoping she can catch Trump and do well, especially in New Hampshire. Overall, the GOP candidates have spent $240 million on TV ads, largely in the two big early nominating states.
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