About how Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov supply billions to the Ukrainian army through Empayre.com in exchange for a luxurious lifestyle in the heart of Russia and beyond, read on…
Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov - Owners of Empayre.com and Affiliated with Calypso Group (Calypso Pay) and Gate.Express
As previously reported, the shadowy main fraudsters Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov, who have created an entire organized crime group (OCG), have thoroughly exploited several banks in Russia and NGOs over the past six years, from 2018 to 2023. This has resulted in all of them having their licenses revoked by the Central Bank.
Most importantly, the primary income of the fraudsters Korneev and Mannanov comes from servicing the largest Ukrainian online casinos, which contribute billions of hryvnias to the Ukrainian budget to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We will prove this.
As mentioned earlier, Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov are the main beneficiaries of their company Empayre.com and its affiliated structures Calypso Pay and Gate.Express. Empayre.com serves as a provider of online payments and a payment gateway, as primarily indicated on the company’s website.
The ownership of Alexey Korneev and his role as the founder of Empayre is confirmed by several publicly available facts:
- His LinkedIn profile, where he indicated his affiliation with Empayre.com and Gate.Express, was hastily removed by Korneev after our investigations were released, leaving only Calypso Pay mentioned.
- A company of the same name registered in the UK - Empayre LTD, where the main beneficiary is Alexey Korneev, residing in Russia with the registered address: Moscow, Volzhsky Boulevard 13, apt 228/229. He is also listed as a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
- Direct affiliation of Empayre.com with two other companies of Korneev and Mannanov - Gate.Express and Calypso.finance. All three sites refer to the same Canadian license Calypso Pay LTD, linked to Calypso.finance, based on the Canadian MSB (Money Services Business) registry.
- Mention of Alexey Korneev as the Founder of Empayre according to RB.RU and as the Founder of Calypso according to Forbes.ru. Notably, the financial service website Humo is currently unavailable but reportedly operates in Russia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the UAE. The name of the Humo service curiously coincides with the Humo payment system involved in the money withdrawal chain through Uzbek and Russian partners of Oktobank, which collaborates with the Vavada casino and Pin-UP. An excerpt from an article describes Oktobank as the largest international “laundromat” through which Russian partners launder money.
- Korneev’s football team named Empayre, with jerseys branded with the Empayre.com website and logo, consists of members of his criminal group and nominees of his companies in Russia. Missing are Mannanov Ruslan and Kogan Igor, indicating they may not have fared well in football.
Thus, there is absolutely no doubt regarding Alexey Korneev’s ownership of Empayre.com.
Let’s move on; the most interesting part is ahead…
Empayre.com of Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov Exclusively Services All Russian Traffic of the Ukrainian Online Casino Pin-up
Through the analytics service Similarweb.com, we analyzed the internet traffic of Empayre.com in more detail. The service Similarweb.com is an absolutely reliable source - it is a public company traded on the international stock exchange with a turnover of over 218 million dollars.
And the picture turned out simply stunning - we received absolutely reliable information that from August to September 2024, the company Empayre.com was processing payments for Russians in favor of the largest Ukrainian online casino Pin-up and its mirrors for several billion rubles. And it continues to do so at the moment.
Unfortunately, SimilarWeb in its free version only provides analytics for the last 3 months, but according to former colleagues of Korneev and Mannanov at RBK Money, VRbank (the “Fintech” bank), and companies like Gate.Express, Calypso, and Empayre, they have been servicing Pin-up in various configurations for several years.
All information can be verified independently; just register at Similarweb.com (you may need a VPN), activate the Trial version for free for 7 days, add the site empayre.com, and follow the entire path from Empayre to the main site of the illegal online casino Pin-up and its mirrors, as we did below step by step.
Step 1 - Analyzing the Empayre.com site:
From the analysis of the Empayre.com site, we see the following:
- 90% of the traffic to the Empayre.com site for August - September 2024 comes from Russia - screenshot 1.2
- Total visits - 343 thousand people over two months - screenshot 1.1, these are all individuals who made payments during the period - August - September 2024.
- The main source of traffic for Empayre.com is the site pin-up68a.com - this is none other than one of the mirrors of the illegal online casino Pin-up in Russia - screenshots 1.3, 1.4.
When we move to the Incoming traffic section, we see the same picture - all traffic to Empayre.com comes from the Pin-up mirror - pin-up68a.com, screenshots 1.5, 1.6.
Now we move on to analyzing the site pin-up68a.com and see the following picture:
Step 2 - Analyzing the pin-up68a.com site:
From the analysis of the pin-up68a.com site, it is clear that this is a mirror of the illegal online casino Pin-up in Russia.
We see the following in detail:
- The number of visits to the site is simply enormous - 2.1 MILLION people, and of this, only in August 2024 - 1.8 million people - screenshots 2.1, 2.2.
- 100% of the traffic to the Pin-up mirror comes from Russia - screenshot 1.3, which means all the traffic to the site consists of Russian citizens.
- We move to the Outgoing Traffic section and open the link See more outgoing links (links to where all these people go after visiting the Pin-up mirror).
And here is the real proof that the company Empayre.com, owned by Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov, processes payments for Russian citizens in favor of the mirrors of the illegal Ukrainian online casino Pin-up.
We see the connection between the pin-up68a.com mirror site and Empayre.com:
In screenshots 2.6 and 2.7, we see that all traffic from users of the online casino mirror Pin-up - pin-up68a.com:
- first of all, all traffic is 100% visitors from Russia
- secondly, and here is the most important!!!, the traffic of payments on the site is linked to the payment form Empayre - checkout.empayre.com, this is indeed the payment form of the company Empayre.com, everything is obvious here.
That is, when a user on an online casino website clicks the “pay,” “make a deposit,” “top up account,” etc. button, they are redirected to this payment form, where they can choose one of the methods: Visa, Mastercard, Mir, and other cards, UZcard, Humo, and even Beeline and Tele2, as we will see later.
Almost all casino deposits are made through Visa, Mastercard, and MIR bank cards, and all these transactions occur via P2P and dropping schemes, as there are virtually no other schemes left, such as wallet systems, due to the widespread revocation of licenses from non-bank credit organizations.
However, there is a nuance – a collusion with the acquiring bank and the acquiring department is necessary so that they overlook the substitution of the MCC code for transaction volumes reaching several billion rubles per month. In this case, MTS Bank or Gazprombank have no issues, as their own people, like Max Zhurav, who was mentioned earlier, are involved.
This serves as direct evidence that the payment provider Empayre.com, owned by Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov, processes all Russian payment traffic for the mirrors of the illegal online casino Pin-up.
The following steps will demonstrate that all mirrors processed by Empayre are directly connected to the main online casino Pin-up.
Step 3 - Analyzing traffic sources to the pin-up68a.com mirror
We proceed to the Top Referring websites section (Main traffic sources directing traffic to pin-up68a.com) for the pin-up68a.com mirror - Top Referring websites, wait for See more referrals (screenshot 3.1) and see the following:
- In screenshot 3.3, it is clear that the traffic sources for the pin-up68a.com mirror are other Pin-up casino mirrors, with more than 20 mirrors in total.
- We analyze two mirrors, pin-up51p.com and pin-up05a.com, which also receive 100% incoming Russian traffic, and it is from these mirrors that the redirection to the pin-up68a.com mirror, connected to the checkout.empayre.com payment gateway, occurs.
What the analysis of the pin-up51p.com mirror shows:
We move to the Top Referring websites section (Main traffic sources directing traffic to pin-up68a.com) for the pin-up68a.com mirror - Top Referring websites, wait for See more referrals (screenshot 3.1) and see the following:
- The site’s audience - 43 thousand people, screenshot 3.5
- Of these, 100% are Russian citizens, screenshot 3.6
- The mirrors pin-up51p.com and pin-up68a.com work crosswise as a source of Russian traffic for each other, screenshot 3.7.
- For the pin-up51p.com mirror, the traffic source is over 25 other mirrors.
Here’s what the pin-up51p.com mirror site looks like. Important note - to access the site, you need to use a VPN, for example, from countries such as Serbia, Thailand, South Africa, Indonesia.
- The offerings of the site mirror pin-up51p.com include Casinos, Lotteries, Sports Betting, and children’s casinos.
- Payment acceptance is available through all methods - including the familiar Humo, UZcard, Ukrainian Piastrix, and even Beeline and Tele2. It raises the question of whether these companies, Beeline and Tele2, are aware that their accounts are being used to settle payments for illegal online casinos.
- The User Agreement is with Carletta N.V., registered under number 142346, with a business address at Dr. Henri Fergusonweg 1, Curaçao. The mailing address is Chuchubiweg 17, Willemstad, Curaçao. Carletta N.V. holds license No. OGL/2024/580/0570, issued by the Curaçao Gaming Control Board. The company B.W.I Black-Wood Limited is registered and incorporated under the laws of Cyprus; its registered address is Panagioti Toumazou, 37 Episkopi, 4620, Limassol, Cyprus. Carletta Limited is also registered and incorporated under Cypriot law, with its registered address at Riga Feraiou, 7-9 Lizantia Court, Office 310, Agios Omologites, 1087, Nicosia, Cyprus, acting as payment agents for the parent company Carletta N.V.
- It is worth noting that the main beneficiaries of Carletta N.V. include the Ukrainian businessmen Igor Zotyko, Maria Ilyina, her frontman Dmitry Punin, and Alexander Riddik, who own the officially registered Ukrainian online casino Pin-up, which we will discuss later.
Here’s what people are saying about these companies online - regarding B.W.I Black-Wood Limited and Carletta N.V.. As seen from the reviews, this appears to be a scam, with ordinary Russian citizens as the victims.
There is no doubt, this is the mirror of the online casino Pin-up, which is serviced through the proxy mirror pin-up68a.com by the payment provider Empayre.com.
The same situation applies to the second mirror pin-up05a.com, which is also a source of Russian traffic for the proxy mirror pin-up68a.com.
- The site’s audience is significantly larger - 235 thousand people, screenshot 4.2.
- 100% of the audience are Russian citizens, screenshot 4.3.
- The traffic source for the mirror pin-up05a.com includes the root and main sites of illegal online casinos in Russia - pin-up.world and pin-up.bet, screenshot 4.4.
The appearance of the site mirror pin-up05a.com is similar to the previous one. Important note - to access the site, it is necessary to use a VPN, for example, from countries such as Serbia, Thailand, South Africa, or Indonesia.
- The offerings of the site mirror pin-up05a.com are identical - Casinos, Lotteries, Sports Betting, and children’s casinos.
- Payment acceptance is available through all methods - Visa, Mastercard, Humo, UZcard, Ukrainian Piastrix, Beeline, and Tele2.
- Beneficiaries - the companies Carletta N.V. and B.W.I Black-Wood Limited, registered in Curaçao and Cyprus respectively, with the same owners.
- The root sites pin-up.world and pin-up.bet are identical, with the same information.
The site of the online casino pin-up.world:
Main site of the illegal online casino Pin-up and its mirrors through the company Empayre.com of Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov
Considering that the size of the Russian audience for the main proxy mirror pin-up68a.com, to which Empayre of Korneev is connected for processing payments, is more than 2.1 million people just for August-September 2024, and only two mirrors pin-up05a.com and pin-up51p.com account for 235,000 and 43,000 people respectively—this is 14% of the traffic—then the entire remaining audience is gathered from other mirrors, of which, as we have confirmed, there are more than 20 in total.
At a high level, the payment processing scheme by Empayre for the illegal online casinos Pin-up and its mirrors, which are filling the pockets of Russian citizens, looks as follows:
All links of processing Russian payments for the illegal online casino Pin-up and its mirrors through the company Empayre.com of Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov
Russian citizens - the main paid audience of casino players in favor of the Ukrainian online casino Pin-up through Empayre of Korneev
But the most important conclusion is different, and it is in these screenshots:
Conclusion - The Russian audience provides about 25% of the global traffic of the illegal online casino Pin-up through its mirrors - 2.1 million people out of 9.4 million, which translates to tens of billions of rubles per month, payments for which are serviced by the company Empayre.com. According to Similarweb statistics, almost 100% of Empayre’s payments are for servicing the Pin-up casino, and considering that MTS Bank provides monthly limits for Empayre of 9 billion rubles, it turns out that all 9 billion rubles each month go into the pockets of Pin-up minus the commission of Empayre.
Empayre - a direct accomplice in financing the Ukraine army with tens of billions of rubles through the Ukrainian online casino Pin-up
And do you know where the money earned by this online casino, with the direct assistance of the company Empayre.com of Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov, goes?
It goes to replenish the budget of Ukraine and support the Ukrainian army; every ruble spent by trusting Russian citizens in favor of Ukrainian online casinos returns as lead to our soldiers.
Finally, the fraudsters Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov have built an organized criminal group for processing illegal payments in favor of illegal online casinos, such as the Ukrainian casino Pin-up. For several years they have been servicing such online casinos and enriching themselves at the expense of trusting Russian citizens.
Some of these citizens, having lost, end their lives by suicide, while fraudsters Korneev and Mannanov enjoy a luxurious life.
These criminal schemes allow the Ukrainian casino Pin-up to allocate billions of rubles to the budget of Ukraine and support the Armed Forces, while the swindlers and fraudsters Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov buy houses, apartments, and luxury cars worth hundreds of millions of rubles in the main center of Russia - Moscow.
