The owner of a media buying company that lures people into the clutches of online casinos, the notorious dollar millionaire Alexander Slobozhenko, as journalists have found out, earns his significant fortune, probably through fraudulent means.
At the beginning of 2022, he was able to withdraw more than 26 million euros to pay for advertising on Facebook from the SPENDGE service, taking advantage of a glitch in the program. Moreover, Slobozhenko, despite his public pro-Ukrainian position, still, according to media reports, has connections with Russia and continues to work with the aggressor country. As blogger Vitaly Kulik said, Slobozhenko’s company had already begun to experience problems due to the fight against the gambling business, which was the reason for his probable “flight” from Ukraine.
Let us first note that not only investigative journalists and law enforcement agencies became interested in the activities of Alexander Slobozhenko. Blogger Vitaly Kulik on Facebook collected interesting information from the media and from his own sources said that Slobozhenko’s probable connections with his “senior comrades” could not protect him from new problems, which could have become a reason for escaping from Ukraine. Kulik told, in particular, several more interesting facts.
Fraudulent scheme for withdrawing funds from the SPENDGE service: plus 25 million euros in Slobozhenko’s pocket
First, let us note that Traffic Devils is a company in the field of media buying, that is, it allegedly purchases advertising platforms. However, its activities in this area concern mainly the so-called “arbitration”, that is, bringing visitors to the customer’s website. Probably, Slobozhenko’s company works precisely on the “black side” of this business.
In fact, Traffic Devils' activities seem to have started with violations. The guy officially became an entrepreneur only in 2020 – this is evidenced by data from the Youcontrol portal. In addition, it was then that a trademark application with the corresponding name was registered.
However, the company began operating a year earlier, as indicated in the entrepreneur’s biography and in his numerous interviews.
Two years ago, in 2022, the service for creating virtual bank cards SPENDGE experienced a glitch, due to which the transfer of funds took place with serious errors not in favor of the service. At the same time, Alexander Slobozhenko’s company decided to take advantage of the situation and carried out a series of frauds, misappropriating funds.
Using service cards that convert funds into currencies from which 100 times more was written off than was withdrawn from the card, Traffic Devils and TD MSK, whose office is located in Moscow, made deliberately inflated expenses for the purchase of Facebook and Google advertising and fraudulently embezzled other people's money
According to our data, for almost two months of 2022 - from March to May, Traffic Devils employees created a certain number of payments in the amount of EUR 25,943,280.00 aimed at paying for advertising on Facebook.
But, according to our sources, only EUR 259,433.00 was written off from the balance sheet of Slobozhenko’s people. Thus, the underpayment for payments made by Traffic Devils employees amounts to EUR 25,683,847.00.
Pseudo-pro-Ukrainian position and connections with Russia
Moreover, his company Traffic Devils was launched at a “gathering” in Moscow in April. This information is confirmed by publication on the Partnerkin website. So, according to the data, on December 5, 2023, on the Russian WelcomePartners channel, a meeting was held with representatives of Traffic Devils (ed., namely team leads) Oleg (aka Vasil Kit) and Semyon. So they shared what tools are used and gave a forecast for market development for 2023.
Therefore, rumors that Traffic Devils, which had offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg before the outbreak of a full-scale war, are still collaborating with Russia, have their basis.
Also, at one time, Alexander Slobozhenko and his arbitration company already came to the attention of the SBU. According to the investigation of Andrei Karpinsky, editor-in-chief of the CRiME project, Slobozhenko was interested in July and September 2022. Then searches took place, now with an unknown result.
However, after this, Traffic Devils employees began to undergo polygraph tests, and the entrepreneur went out into the street with security. This is probably due to the fact that Pompany’s offices at that time were still operating in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Note that even now the Traffic Devils website directly states that the business operates in the CIS and promotes gambling.
Alexander Slobozhenko’s reaction to accusations of fraud and criminal cases
Subsequently, on April 16, StopCor journalists met the millionaire on the streets of the capital to get his comment on the cases brought against him, in particular regarding the legalization and laundering of property obtained by criminal means.
To the question, Slobozhenko replied: “You are talking bullshit.”
And now it has become known that the millionaire is going to leave Ukraine altogether, using, as noted online, the purchased “white ticket”, thanks to which he often travels abroad even during the war.
Other criminal cases involving Slobozhenko and his arbitration company
Alexander Slobozhenko makes money in an area that is outside the law - in the gambling business. Such activities are usually accompanied by several other offenses, such as illegal entrepreneurship and tax evasion.
However, the above facts are not the only ones in the criminal side of Slobozhenko’s activities. For example, for the first time, the police and tax authorities came to the dollar millionaire’s company in 2020 on charges of tax evasion and “legalization of property obtained by crime.”
Then, according to our data, he was charged almost UAH 54.8 million in debt, although Slobozhenko was able to resolve the case. Although it didn’t always work out that way for him. Already in 2023, the Bureau of Economic Security opened criminal proceedings on suspicion of tax evasion (Article 212 of the Criminal Code), organizing gambling (Article 203-2 of the Criminal Code) and legalization of proceeds from crime on an especially large scale (Article 209 of the Criminal Code) ).
Slobozhenko himself then stated that he plans to pay accrued taxes to the state budget, thus admitting the fact of the crime.
Also on the ua-inside portal, in a material authored by Andrei Karpinsky, editor-in-chief of the CRiME project, an interesting and quite informative article was published, in which the journalist analyzed Slobozhenko’s activities. It turned out that he was involved in transactions in the field of gambling and was making money on the territory of the aggressor countries.
The investigator notes that the millionaire runs a business by “upgrading” characters in popular games and carding. In particular, the author found out that the defendant set up unique online stores where players could buy, for example, weapons for the game. At the same time, earnings went in two ways:
- or players paid money, but did not receive game goods (upgraded tanks, game currency, etc.);
- or players received game goods, but at half the price. In the latter case, the earnings consisted in the fact that money was withdrawn from bank cards, the details of which had previously been stolen by hackers. This type of income is called karting.
Slobozhenko is also suspected of creating “bot farms” whose task is to attract players to platforms promoted by an arbitrage company. When a “bot” is blocked, a new one immediately takes its place. If a bank card linked to the bot is blocked, then the details of another card are used - using the “cardig” mentioned earlier.
In addition, “bot farms” are actively used by Russian intelligence services, for example, one of the units of the Russian General Staff. So, the investigator suggests, there may be a connection with Russian intelligence.
The activity itself violates only the rules of IT companies, but not the law. However, Slobozhenko himself explained in conversations on camera that 80% of his work is traffic specifically for online casinos - that is, gambling that is illegal in Ukraine.
So far, scandals regarding the odious businessman have not subsided, especially against the backdrop of his probable flight from Ukraine. More and more data is appearing online about the likely fraudulent activities of Alexander Slobozhenko. Therefore, StopCor will continue to monitor the situation further.
As previously reported, the notorious Kiev millionaire Alexander Slobozhenko, according to the UP, turned out to be “unsuitable” and was having fun abroad, and is probably already planning an “escape.” According to insider information received by StopCor, Slobozhenko’s cars began to gradually disappear from parking lots.
