Regulatory authorities have taken an interest in the crypto evangelist Oleksandr Orlovskyi

Regulatory authorities have taken an interest in the crypto evangelist Oleksandr Orlovskyi

His «sect» Financial Freedom Academy tries to cover itself with the military.

The authorities have finally turned their attention to suspicious schemes in the cryptocurrency market disguised as educational projects. Recently, the regulatory authorities have focused on Financial Freedom Academy (FFA community), whose nominal founder is 26-year-old Oleksandr Orlovsky.

This is reported by Andriy Karpinsky in his article for the projects CRiME and [high-profile cases].

On November 13, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) subordinated to the President of Ukraine added three «branches» of Financial Freedom Academy – FFA Crypto, FFA Crypto RISE, and FFA Crypto Capitalist – to the list of dubious investment projects.

The next day, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) issued a warning about the dangers of collaborating with Orlovsky’s projects.

It should be noted that the «black mark» from NSSMC is a signal not only for potential «clients» of the FFA community but also for law enforcement agencies. The basis for being included in the list of unreliable investment projects compiled by the National Commission is the presence of signs of financial fraud, that is, a criminal offense provided for by Article 190 of the Criminal Code.

FFA Crypto, FFA Crypto RISE, and FFA Crypto Capitalist, nominally founded by Oleksandr Orlovsky, exhibit several of the ten signs of fraud listed in the NSSMC’s list.

In particular:

• Oleksandr Orlovsky in his projects promises returns from 100% to 10,000%.
• His projects are not registered to legal entities, they do not have a physical office, any permits, or licenses to operate.
• Neither Oleksandr Orlovsky nor any authorized person signs any documents with clients, instead, the "mentor" calls on clients to recruit their relatives and friends into the FFA community.
• Oleksandr Orlovsky conducts aggressive marketing campaigns on the Internet, and the information presented in his advertisements is either blatantly false or extremely difficult to verify.

Regarding the last point, an example can be taken from an advertising post on the Telegram channel «Batalion Monaco». It claims that the «students» nominated Orlovsky’s Financial Freedom Academy for the «prestigious» award «Choice of the Country», where it won in the category «best education». In fact, anyone willing to pay can become a laureate of the «Choice of the Country».

Oleksandr Orlovskyi masks his suspicious projects as educational activities. This «crypto preacher» mainly collects funds from citizens not under the guise of investments, but for allegedly teaching them to invest successfully in highly liquid crypto assets. This type of fraud is widely known as infogypsy, where a swindler sells a practically worthless «information product» for a lot of money. It should be noted that Oleksandr Orlovskyi charges «students» from several hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the «advancement» of the course «training».

In the «educational» schemes of this "mentor," there is an integral element of financial pyramids - multi-level network marketing. Oleksandr Orlovskyi encourages his «students» to recruit their friends and acquaintances into his «cryptosect», promising a certain percentage of each new recruit’s «contribution».

At the same time, Oleksandr Orlovskyi profits from external crypto projects by luring his «students» (and their funds) into them through referral links. Occasionally, Orlovskyi’s partner projects exhibit signs of fraud and connections with an aggressor country.

It is quite possible that after exposing the «Orlovskyi organization,» the National Securities and Stock Market Commission will pay attention to other infogypsies whose schemes have signs of financial fraud. For example, the «academy» Profit Lady, officially founded by Kateryna Shukhnina.

Kateryna Shukhnina

Recently, it was written in the investigation «Kateryna Shukhnina and Oleksandr Orlovskyi: Pernicious Connections and Criminal «Authorities» that these two not only «work» according to very similar schemes, but they may also be connected by real ultimate beneficiaries of their schemes.

How Oleksandr Orlovskyi «helps» the Armed Forces

Oleksandr Orlovskyi, who reached conscript age this April, diligently avoids his home territory and, accordingly, military registration (as far as is known, he permanently resides in Poland). Instead, since September, his Financial Freedom Academy has been actively exploiting the theme of assisting the Armed Forces in its advertising campaigns. Previously, Oleksandr Orlovskyi focused on his «successes» in the cryptocurrency market in his ads, luring potential «students» with promises of a luxurious lifestyle.

Since the fall of this year, Orlovskyi’s «cryptosect» has «transformed» into a community of donors and volunteers, presumably not by coincidence. Because August-September saw the largest wave of revealing publications in online media, in which the crypto mentor Oleksandr Orlovskyi appears as an ordinary fraudster.

For fairness’s sake, it should be noted that Oleksandr Orlovskyi in the FFA community has raised the issue of donations to the Armed Forces earlier than he started promoting himself with this theme. For instance, as early as December last year, he announced a collection of 10 million UAH for drones for our defenders. The money was supposed to go to the account of the Odesa charitable foundation «Wave’91», whose founders are indeed seriously involved with UAVs.

Over the last year, Oleksandr Orlovskyi has at least twice reported on his Telegram channel to his followers about his personal donations for military drones. However, for some reason, the receipts he provided did not mention the sender of the funds.

For example:

As you can see, Oleksandr Orlovskyi informs his followers that this April he donated 200,000 UAH for drones for the Armed Forces. But the author of these lines quickly found out that this money was transferred to the charity foundation "Wave’91," which supports our defenders, not by Oleksandr Orlovskyi. And if the IBAN number of the payer mentioned in the receipt is to be believed, Darіa Hatsko made the transfer.

Darya Hatsko – an entrepreneur from the village of Khorosheve near Kharkiv, registered in October 2023, and liquidated two months after Oleksandr Orlovskyi bragged about this receipt in his «telegram». That is, Darya Romanovna suspiciously resembles a "drop".

Still, not everything told in PR publications about Orlovskyi’s help to the military is completely false.

Two weeks ago, on December 6, a few hours after the publication of the next investigation featuring Oleksandr Orlovskyi, this character launched a new strong wave of self-promotion. For example:

The obvious goal of that wave was to push our publication out of search engine results or at least to undermine the facts presented in it. After all, how could a volunteer-benefactor Oleksandr Orlovskyi, who donated to the army millions earned with his sweat and blood, be a fraud?

Meanwhile, it is worth noting that with each wave of PR campaigns, our hero finds himself in an increasingly awkward position. Here is an example of what Oleksandr Orlovskyi was spreading about himself three months ago:

That is, it turns out that the infinitely generous philanthropist Oleksandr Orlovskyi donated as much as 3 million UAH to the Armed Forces for the entire duration of the war, which is a little more than half the cost of a new BMW (5.7 million UAH at the exchange rate), which he purchased for his collection of luxury cars (if Orlovskyi is to be believed, he regularly adds to this collection). However, the author suspects that Orlovskyi’s car park is as mythical as his donations to the Armed Forces.

Moving on.

During November-December this year, Financial Freedom Academy published a series of promotional materials in the media claiming that Oleksandr Orlovskyi transferred 826,000 UAH of his own funds to the Superhumans fund (a charitable foundation «Superhumans»), which deals with prosthetics and rehabilitation of wounded defenders of Ukraine. Moreover, the PR publications suggest that Orlovskyi’s crypto community collaborates with this organization on an ongoing basis, regularly raising substantial amounts for Superhumans.

Superhumans is a specialized clinic for prosthetics and reconstruction, created in Lviv by representatives of big business at the beginning of the large-scale invasion by the aggressor country. It employs leading medical experts. The Supervisory Board of the Superhumans fund is headed by the Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko and the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska. Its ambassadors are globally renowned show business stars such as Sting and Aimee Mullins. Partners of Superhumans include the Foundation of Howard Buffett, a powerful American businessman, politician, and philanthropist.

To join such a charitable company is very honorable. So when Oleksandr Orlovskyi and Financial Freedom Academy, along with these benefactors, stand our wounded heroes on their feet, is it worth turning a blind eye to the fact that his schemes reek of fraud?

But deceivers are known to mislead everywhere. We contacted Superhumans and asked: do they collaborate with Financial Freedom Academy and its founder, and did the organization give permission to use the name Superhumans for promoting Mr. Orlovskyi?

The journalists were quickly answered:

According to the PR service of Superhumans, Oleksandr Orlovskyi did indeed donate for a prosthetic for a military man. And that’s it. No fundraising for the patients of «Superpeople» is conducted by the «academic» Orlovskyi and his Financial Freedom Academy. At least, as far as can be understood, donations collected by the «cryptosect» have not been seen in Superhumans. However, they were somewhat upset that Oleksandr Orlovskyi exploits the name of the organization to improve his reputation.

But there is another nuance: journalists found out that the donation confirmed by Superhumans was actually not made by Oleksandr Orlovskyi.

On October 18, Sashko posted on his Telegram channel a post calling for donations to the Superhumans fund.

As you can see, Orlovskyi attached receipts to this post, supposedly confirming a donation from him to the Superhumans fund for a prosthetic for a wounded soldier named Oleksandr. I downloaded these receipts, enlarged them, and examined them closely. And I saw that 826,000 UAH was transferred in almost equal tranches to the charitable foundation «Superhumans» this August by an individual entrepreneur, Samoylova V.V.

Oleksandr Orlovskyi claims this is his donation. Superhumans believe it is a donation from Orlovskyi. But according to the documents «displayed» by the generous benefactor – no, the money was transferred by a completely «random» individual entrepreneur.

This suggests the thought that Oleksandr Orlovskyi is so deeply entrenched in financial «scheming» that he even donates for drones and prosthetics for the military through «drops» - proxy persons. But if you think better, you might conclude that the real beneficiaries of the «cryptosect» Financial Freedom Academy do not allow Sashko to handle not only the money collected from his «followers» but also funds for charity.

To be continued...