Sigma Appears to Have Lost Payment Center as a Major Advertiser After March Arrests in Moscow

Payment Center, one of the major names in high-risk acquiring in the CIS, appears to have disappeared as Sigma’s biggest advertiser after arrests in Moscow in March. For high-risk PSPs and merchants, the point is not the conference gossip; it is that operational trouble at a payment stack can quickly turn into settlement delays, contract reviews, pre-settlement requests, and suspended processing.

1. In March, people closely tied to Payment Center were detained and arrested in Moscow. The company is described as one of the most powerful payment systems in high-risk acquiring in the CIS, with related brands including PaySelection, GateExpress, Calypso, and others.
2. The fallout affected Payment Center’s clients, including Pinup, Mostbet, 1xbet, MelBet, 888starz, Riobet, Leonbet, 1win, Azino777, and others. According to the source, Payment Center and its white-labels did not settle more than $10 million at the time, which forced many merchants to revisit commercial terms with payment providers, ask for pre-settlement, or suspend cooperation over the following months.
3. The source also says some participants faced questioning on arrival in Georgia after attending GGate’s first conference in the CIS, with questions about the purpose of the visit and their line of business. For teams operating in this segment, that is a reminder that conference travel, counterparties, and public visibility can become part of the risk profile once a payment network comes under pressure.
4. The main beneficiary of Payment Center, Arsen Akopyan, is said to be in the same pre-trial detention center as Pavel Vrublevsky, who was found guilty of fraud on a particularly large scale. That matters less as drama and more as a signal that the situation around the group remains unresolved.

For high-risk operators, the practical takeaway is straightforward: when a large acquirer or payment stack gets hit, the impact does not stay inside one company. It moves outward into settlement, reserves, onboarding decisions, and whether merchants keep the same PSP at all.