Arrest warrant issued for former Mansion Group CEO Karel Manasco
The former gambling boss is accused of embezzling funds from Mansion.
Gibraltar.- An arrest warrant has been issued after Karel Manasco, the former CEO of Mansion Group, failed to attend a sentencing hearing in Gibraltar. Manasco, who is accused of embezzling funds from Mansion, was due to be sentenced for contempt of court on April 9.
Manasco’s representative claimed that the presiding judge, Chief Justice Dudley, had shown bias in the case. He also claimed that the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) had published biased coverage and that Mansion Group and the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority (GRA) had conspired against him.
The charges of embezzlement against Manasco relate to payments totalling €2.5m made to White Wizard Media (WWML) for 14 invoices between August 10 2018 and June 13 2019. A payment of £127,073 to a consultancy firm is also under suspicion.
Mansion Group says that WWML provided no services to the company and that the funds were transferred to offshore accounts controlled by Manasco. In February 2024, the court froze £5 million of Manasco’s assets after hearing allegations that he had paid himself unauthorised bonuses.
In September 2024, the Supreme Court ordered Manasco to reimburse Mansion Group €2.5m and £127,073. The charge of contempt of court stemmed from alleged breaches of the assets freeze. The sentencing for contempt has been postponed until May 14.
Mansion Group had grown to have a sizable international presence, including Gambling Commission-licensed sports betting and online casino operations in the United Kingdom. However, the company closed its sports betting brand MansionBet in 2020 amid management conflicts and a Gambling Commission investigation into Mansion Europe and M88.
In January 2023, it closed all Great Britain-facing brands, including Casino.com, MansionCasino.com, and SlotsHeaven.com. It continued to operate in Spain and Ontario, but only until October 2023, when Mansion closed all B2C brands.
