A Lithuanian court has found that Olympic Casino breached gambling regulations in a case involving an executive at a private equity firm who is accused of stealing and gambling away large sums of money. The court found that the operator failed to comply with responsible gambling requirements; it did not intervene despite signs of gambling addiction.
More specifically, the case involves Šarūnas Stepukonis, a former BaltCap partner suspected of embezzling tens of millions of euros, with large sums spent on gambling.
Stepukonis gambled with Olympic Casino between 2016 and 2021. He is accused of embezzling around €42m from several companies managed by BaltCap. The scandal affected Lithuanian and Estonian pension funds that invested in the BaltCap fund.
The court upheld findings that the casino failed to comply with responsible gambling requirements. Separately, the gambling regulator found that Olympic Casino failed to adequately establish the source of Stepukonis’ funds.
Apparently, the transactions contained several signals that should have raised the casino's suspicions. It is alleged that instead of intervening, the operator encouraged Stepukonis to gamble even more.
The Lithuanian Gambling Supervision Authority fined Olympic Casino almost €8.4m over AML and gambling-law violations in March 2025. The fine is still subject to a separate court case.
Apparently, Olympic Casino later allowed Stepukonis to circumvent Lithuanian restrictions by routing his online gambling habits through Estonia.
New suspicions were brought against an Estonian gambling company, Olybet, part of the Olympic Group, and its CEO, Corey Plummer, in the European Public Prosecutor's Office investigation.
Earlier, it was noted that Plummer personally approved benefits for Stepukonis as a VIP client. Plummer reportedly accompanied Stepukonis on a company-sponsored trip to watch a football match in Turin. Although the Estonian company said it offered travel gifts to VIP clients, investigations did not identify other cases of similar scope to Stepukonis.
Previously, the Lithuanian regulator also noted that Olympic failed to report suspicious transactions to the country’s Financial Crime Investigation Service
