We conducted an in-depth investigation and thoroughly dismantled the fraudulent structure created by Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov, which processes online payments amounting to tens of billions of rubles monthly for banned online casinos in Russia, children’s casinos, and illegal betting platforms.
Below, we provide a detailed description of all the companies owned by Korneev and Mannanov and their roles.
After the “tour” of Korneev and Mannanov through banks and non-bank credit organizations (NCOs) resulted in the revocation of their licenses (Bank “Fintech”, Bank “Onego”, NCO “EPS”, NCO “NARAT”, NCO “Elixir”) and bankruptcy (RBC Money) due to a massive attack by the Central Bank at the end of 2020 on the illegal online casino market and all related “dumpster banks,” the touring fraudsters decided to conceal themselves more effectively and transfer most of their traffic to cryptocurrency, which by 2021 was gaining traction as a payment method for online casinos, as well as for P2P transfers to third countries.
The Last Supper of the organizers of criminal schemes for P2P transfers amounting to tens of billions of rubles for casinos
Excerpt from The Bell investigation - clearly describes the opinions of former employees of Gate.express, Payment.Center, and other subsidiaries serving HighRisk operations
The Bell Investigation - Kings of HighRisk
In late 2020, Alexey Korneev, Ruslan Mannanov, and their accomplice Svyatoslav Dorofeev established the company Calypso Pay (Calypso.finance) under the guise of a promising cryptocurrency exchange, registered in unfriendly Canada, following the same scheme and for the same purposes as the already familiar company of Arsen Akopyan - Defexa.io, which we reported on earlier in a previous investigation. They were even registered in the same jurisdiction with identical types of activities, differing by just a couple of months. The registry can be found here, where you can simply enter these names. License types - money services business (MSB).
Data of Calypso Pay LTD from the Canadian money services business (MSB) registry
Data of FPS GLOBAL LTD from the Canadian money services business (MSB) registry
Interestingly, the activities of both companies owned by Korneev and Akopyan fall under prohibited activities, but apparently, the Canadian registrar is still unaware of their real operations.
Data of FPS GLOBAL LTD from the Canadian money services business (MSB) registry
CALYPSO PAY.
Calypso Pay is a crypto exchange that allows for the anonymous withdrawal and exchange of money, thereby concealing the sources of funds and easily converting money from Russia into cryptocurrency, subsequently withdrawing it to the accounts of online casino owners and betting sites abroad.
The main owners of the created structure are the same: Alexey Korneev (Chairman), Svyatoslav Dorofeev (CEO), Ruslan Mannanov (CFO), as seen from Dorofeev’s own publication on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn of Dorofeev - Calypso Pay Merges With TheWatch to Build a Crypto-Native Fintech Ecosystem
crypto-reporter.com - Calypso Pay Merges With TheWatch to Build a Crypto-Native Fintech Ecosystem
As we already know, to conceal illegal schemes, it is necessary to create the appearance of a serious brand or better yet, a conglomerate, as Dorofeev writes in his post. But in fact, behind this beautiful facade hides not fintech, but money laundering offices for withdrawing funds of Russian citizens abroad to the accounts of these casinos.
As we wrote earlier, Dorofeev was one of the stakeholders of the NCO Elixir, which processed billions of illegal payments in favor of online casinos through wallet and P2P schemes in 2021-2022. According to our sources, Dorofeev, along with Korneev and Mannanov, also participated in all fraudulent schemes, starting with RBC Money of Burlakovs.
If we look at the website of Calypso Pay - calypso.finance, it refers to the license of the Canadian company Calypso Pat LTD in the “footer” of the site, let’s remember this. Moving on.
Data of FPS GLOBAL LTD from the Canadian registry
GATE.EXPRESS.
Interestingly, the well-known company in narrow circles of the HighRisk business and casinos, owned by Korneev and Mannanov, Gate.express (gate.express/en), which has developed a dubious reputation for scams, is also allegedly a technology provider for Calypso Pay, as seen in the “footer” of their site, which Dorofeev, of course, deliberately conceals, and is part of the aforementioned “HighRisk conglomerate.”
EMPAYRE.COM.
Another company of Alexey Korneev, Empayre.com, also refers to the same Calypso Pay LTD, similarly to Gate.express.
Our scammers decided to create Empayre as an alternative to the rather tarnished company Gate.Express, to “reboot,” so to speak, and roll out a new brand to replace the old one, which has accumulated dirt. Empayre.com is the same Gate.Express. Essentially, the scheme is the same, tried and tested over the years.
Korneev also has a company registered in the UK under the same name, Empayre LTD, where Mr. Korneev is the main stakeholder.
An interesting fact - in the “address” section, Korneev’s registration in Moscow is indicated, while in the “nationality” section, it states not Russian, but Kittitian. It turned out that this is the citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis. I wonder if the competent authorities of the Russian Federation know that Alexey Korneev has this citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis or if he decided to hide this fact from them.
Moreover, Korneev himself does not hide in his LinkedIn that he is associated with all the aforementioned companies.
To be more certain that Calypso Pay = Gate.Express = Empayre.com is engaged in ordinary HighRisk activity and serves online casinos for the Russian market, it is enough to look at public reviews reviews about Calypso Pay on Trustpilot.com from ordinary users who have encountered fraud while depositing into online casinos, which once again confirms that there is no crypto-fintech, but just a dump for replenishing online casinos. One of the reviews states that a player topped up Vulkan Vegas Casino, the banned Vulkan online casinos are well known in the Russian Federation.
Of course, this entire conglomerate called Calypso Group is yet another new scam and fraudulent structure for processing payments for online casinos and withdrawing funds from Russia at the expense of trusting citizens of the Russian Federation to the accounts of the owners of these casinos through countries Canada and the UK.
The main beneficiary of this foreign criminal structure called Calypso Group, as mentioned above, is Alexey Korneev in partnership with Ruslan Mannanov and Svyatoslav Dorofeev, which has nothing in common with normal business; it is a regular network of companies transforming the money of the owners of illegal children’s online casinos into cryptocurrency. It is in Calypso Pay that all P2P transfers are converted into cryptocurrency and go further to the casino holders.
Where did the other members of Korneev and Mannanov’s organized crime group go? They are all in business.
Since the main turnover of HighRisk continues to be tied to the Russian Federation, Korneev’s structure of Russian companies is formed as follows, similar to Arsen Akopyan’s companies.
LLC “KARDON” - The main company of Korneev in the Russian Federation (see here)
General Director Sazonov Dmitry Olegovich, most of the employees servicing all fraudulent schemes for online casinos are employed here, similar to KORPUS-IT of Arsen Akopyan (read here).
As seen from the report, there is a rapid increase in revenue for 2023, which cannot help but raise suspicions.
Main activity - Software development Business code 62.01.
Sazonov Dmitry Olegovich is Korneev’s personal driver and, at the same time, a football colleague from the Gudok-2 team.
LLC “SOFT RADAR” - another company of Korneev (see here).
General Director Abilin Viktor Evgenievich, who replaced the same Sazonov Dmitry Olegovich, is also a friend of Korneev from the circle of Korneev’s football players.
We see from the report a similar rapid growth in revenue for the years 2021-2023. This company has the second part of the employees.
Notably, all these companies are registered at the same address in Moscow City; the guys don’t particularly bother, but at least they change the nominal directors around.
LLC “BLOCKCHAIN ANALYTICS” - the third company of Korneev’s organized crime group (see here).
The general director is already known from previous publications, the nominal and neighbor of Korneev - Kogan Igor Alexandrovich, who replaced Dorofeev and Korneev in 2022.
An interesting fact is that from 2018 to 2022, Korneev owned the company LLC “FUSION KOR” (see here), with revenue in 2022 amounting to 598 million rubles. It seemed to be a successful business, but the company was suddenly liquidated despite such success. It’s simple - this is Korneev Alexey’s classic “laundering”, through which he withdrew all his profits from online casino turnovers. Thus, approximately 800 million rubles were withdrawn from the company during the entire existence of “FUSION KOR.”
All of Alexey Korneev’s companies have the same Business code - Software Development (Business code 62.01), why? As we mentioned earlier, this is the easiest way to hide the inflow of funds to the company’s account from unknown sources, as they most likely come for software development services, which cannot be verified, with no goods, no reporting. Phantom software is very easy to present.
Most likely, all the aforementioned companies will meet the fate of “FUSION KOR,” simply liquidating the companies and leaving no trace.
The entire criminal structure built by Alexey Korneev, consisting of Russian and foreign companies, processes about 6 billion rubles per month and facilitates the acceptance of illegal payments in favor of similarly illegal online casinos, children’s casinos, and “black” betting platforms located abroad in jurisdictions unfriendly to Russia.
We sincerely hope that this deception of ordinary citizens, including children, will cease and that the competent authorities will pay attention to this matter.stakeholder
