Gibraltar Court orders freeze on assets of former Mansion Casino CEO

The Gibraltar Courts Service has issued a global freezing order Karel Christian Mañasco’s assets.

Gibraltar.- The chief Justice of the Gibraltar Courts Service has issued a £5m global freezing order against the assets Karel Christian Mañasco, the former CEO of Mansion Casino. A E Dudley issued the order after Mansion filed a claim again Mañasco last year.

Mañasco joined Gibraltar-based Mansion as chief financial officer in 2012 and was promoted to CEO in January 2017. However, he was suspended in September 2021 after Mansion Casino launched a disciplinary investigation. He resigned three months later.

Last year, Mansion filed a legal claim against Mañasco seeking damages for an alleged breach of duties. The online casino operator claims that Mañasco gave himself bonuses of €327,033 and £427,500 in the 2019 and 2020 financial years and paid himself £66,237 in unjustified personal allowance payments

It also claims that he made payments of €2.5m and £127,073 to a company named White Wizard Media incorporated in the Marshall Islands. Mansion says that as far as it knows, the company provided no services to Mansion.

Mañasco is also accused of failing to take reasonable steps to comply with directions from the Gibraltar gaming regulator, which led the company to face a regulatory settlement of £850,000. It also says he bought two vehicles for his own use at a cost of £192,140 and bought luxury watches for £27,876 and €91,935 that he was later not able to account for.

The company also claims Mañasco accrued £249,951 in corporate credit card charges for personal expenses, bought a domain name for his own use for £14,756 and incurred other personal expenses of £71,931, including for legal fees and rent.

Mañasco denies the allegations. He argues that as CEO, he was authorised to order the transactions listed and claims he acted in the interest of the business. He says he will appeal against the Gibraltar court’s ruling.

Mansion has closed its UK-facing brands over the past year. In March 2022, it announced it was closing its sports betting business, MansionBet to refocus on its online casino businesses Casino.com, MansionCasino and Slots Heaven after reviewing the market conditions and regulatory environment in Britain. In January this year it closed those brands too.