Gambling past and Russian trace: who really stands behind the Odrex clinic

The scandalous private clinic Odrex builds an image of a modern European medical institution. At the same time, behind its facade, a completely different story is increasingly visible – with gambling, offshore companies, shell companies, and ties to Russia. Who are the people behind the Odrex clinic, how did money from gambling transform into a medical business, and what role does Russia play in this story, read in the UNN material.

From slot machines to "medicine": the history of the Odrex brand

The history of the Odrex brand began long before this name appeared on the facade of a private clinic. A company with a similar name was registered in Odesa back in 1997. Formally for production, in fact – it was engaged in the import and repair of used slot machines.

Later, the business under the name Odrex re-qualified from repairing used "one-armed bandits" imported from abroad to manufacturing slot machines, gaming tables, and roulette wheels on an industrial scale. It was no longer about dozens, but about thousands of units of products per year – some of which were exported outside of Ukraine.

The company was registered in Odesa on Rozkydailivska Street – at the same address where legal entities associated with the activities of the scandalous Odrex clinic are "registered" today.

At various stages, the co-owners of the gambling business were Tigran Arutyunyan, Leonid Kuchuk, and Iryna Zaykova – people who would later appear in a completely different role: as key figures in the project called "Medical House."

"Nevada": a bridge between Odrex and Russia

In 2001, the business reached a new level. Arutyunyan and Kuchuk founded the company "Nevada," which managed its own gambling halls. The company was registered at the same address on Rozkydailivska, which once again confirms the single business circuit.

It was through "Nevada" that the Odrex gambling business began active expansion abroad. In Russian registers, journalists found an entire network of companies with the same name "Nevada-X," where "X" corresponded to the name of a Russian city or region. Such firms were massively registered in 2002–2003 – a period when Ukrainian slot machines were actively supplied to the Russian market.

LLC "Nevada-Samara" deserves special attention – a Russian company with which the subsidiary "Oslan" was associated. It is with these structures that journalists link the subsequent activities of Viktor Bezinaru.

Currently, all these Russian companies are formally liquidated. However, the very fact of their existence indicates that the business from which the Odrex clinic later "grew" worked for decades in close conjunction with the Russian gambling market.

Viktor Bezinaru: from gambling to medicine

The name Viktor Bezinaru appears in this story not by chance. According to journalists, a person with the same full name was involved in security issues in the Odrex gambling business since the early 2000s. This was at a time when "Odrex" and "Nevada" were actively expanding their presence, including outside of Ukraine.

Subsequently, Bezinaru became the head and founder of a number of companies that had nothing to do with medicine, but were involved in high-profile criminal proceedings. We are talking about firms that participated in dubious tenders, where equipment was purchased at prices many times higher than market prices, and the goods themselves showed signs of technical unsuitability. These circumstances became the subject of attention of the State Bureau of Investigation, which announced an investigation into possible abuses, overpricing of equipment, and the use of a chain of related companies to withdraw funds. Financial flows in such schemes, according to the investigation, passed through a chain of fictitious companies, after which they "dissolved" into the accounts of other legal entities.

At the same time, Bezinaru was not an outside observer for the medical project either. At some point, he was among the individuals who gained direct control over the company that ensured the operation of the Odrex clinic. This happened after scandals and the attention of law enforcement agencies began to arise around the medical institution. Thus, Bezinaru became not just a background figure with a gambling past, but a person who directly entered the structure of Odrex during a critical period for the clinic.

Like other co-owners of Odrex, Bezinaru maintained an interest in the gambling sphere. He remains a co-founder of a company whose main activity is officially listed as organizing gambling. And his partner in this business owns trademarks directly related to this industry.

Why did the owners of the gambling business have to go into medicine?

In 2009, the situation for the gambling business in Ukraine changed dramatically. After the tragedy in a gambling hall in Dnipro, the state virtually banned the operation of slot machines and halls. For companies that had been working in this area for years, this meant the need for urgent business reorganization.

It was during this period that structures associated with the Odrex brand and the "Nevada" company began to change their activity profile. First, an insurance company appeared under the same name, and already in 2012 – a medical project, which later turned into a scandalous private clinic in Odesa.

Confirmation of this transformation can be found in open registers. In particular, Iryna Zaykova remained a co-owner of "Nevada," the company "Odrex" in the form of an LLC is among the founders of the Ukrainian Association of Gambling Business Figures, and the trademarks "Odrex," under which gambling services were previously provided, are registered to Zaykova.

Thus, the signboard and sphere of activity changed, but the key figures and business ties, formed back in the gambling business, did not disappear.

Russian trace in Odrex business

The totality of the collected facts indicates that the business empire, of which the Odrex clinic is now a part, was formed over the years in the gambling business environment with an active presence in the Russian market. It was during that period that financial, corporate, and management ties were laid, which later transformed into a "medical" project.

Against the background of numerous scandals surrounding the clinic, deaths of patients, and testimonies of their relatives about financial pressure, logical questions arise: Were the methods of working from the gambling industry, with its maximization of profit at any cost, not transferred to a sphere where the price of a mistake is measured by human life? And do people who earned money from ludomania now have the right to "treat" Ukrainians?