Olympic Casino Group fined €8.4 Million for Role in €42 Million BaltCap Scandal

Baltic casino operator Olympic Casino Group Baltija has been fined €8.4 million (US$9.2 million) for allowing a rogue BaltCap private equity manager to gamble millions without checks or balances.

Lithuanian national Šarūnas Stepukonis was arrested in February 2024. He’s suspected of misappropriating €42 million (US$46 million) from BaltCap, the region’s largest private equity firm. Prosecutors believed he gambled away around €38 million (US$41 million) of that at land-based and online casinos.

Red Flags Ignored

Stepukonis blew €6.4 million at the Olympic Casino in Vilnius, Lithuania, which failed to take steps to inquire about the source of the funds, according to a ruling by the country’s gaming authority, LPT. Nor did the casino send suspicious activity reports (SARs) to financial authorities, despite serious red flags, according to LPT director Virginijus Daukšys.

“Instead of finding out whether Stepukonis had a gambling problem or informing the supervisory authority, Olympic Casino encouraged him to gamble even more,” Daukšys said in a statement. “An individual incentive package was prepared for him. A total of €1.3m was allocated for this. This ‘bonus’ could only be spent on gambling. Other incentives were also allocated.”

Stadium Fund Plundered

Stepukonis was a partner at BaltCap and the manager of a fund that focused on infrastructure projects for Baltic countries. At the time of his dismissal, he headed up a company that was in the process of building a new Lithuanian national soccer stadium.

The alleged embezzlement is the latest hiccup for a project that has been in the pipeline since 1985, but which has struggled for funding.

In late January 2024, BaltCap sued Stepukonis and Casino Olympic Group Baltija, as well as OB Holdings 1, an Estonian company that owns the Olybet online casino brand.

€31M Lost Online

Stepukonis lost more than €31 million to the Olybet.ee website, according to investigators, who are still attempting to recover these funds. Authorities allege the Estonian company was accepting his bets without a valid Lithuanian gambling license.

He was released from a detention facility last year and currently lives under preventative measures, which include wearing a monitoring tag at all times, as he awaits trial.