Shadow owners of Fresh Forex: who really stands behind the fraud of pseudo-broker Andrey Martynyuk?

Shadow owners of Fresh Forex: who really stands behind the fraud of pseudo-broker Andrey Martynyuk?

After the scandals two years ago surrounding the Fresh Forex Ukraine exchange, it seemed that it had ceased to exist, and the law enforcement authorities had brought the criminal cases against its owner, Andrey Martynyuk, to a logical conclusion.

However, skeptics were right – after loud statements and searches at the offices of Andrey Martynyuk’s companies, for which he publicly called the police and country officials "bastards", everything quieted down and returned to its usual state.

As of the end of November 2024, Andrey Stepanovich Martynyuk still continues to be the owner of a number of firms involved in fraudulent schemes to take money from citizens.

The fact that for Martynyuk and Fresh Forex Ukraine all the threats from the police and prosecutor’s office ended with no results is also confirmed by an analysis of court registers. They are full of the name Martynyuk, but among the many court cases, there is none criminal. Property disputes, land issues, a huge number of lawsuits by Martynyuk against various publications for "protection of honor and dignity," but no criminal proceedings. Furthermore, there is a lawsuit by Andrey Martynyuk against the National Police of Ukraine demanding compensation of 18,450 hryvnias for "material damages." Martynyuk claims that the property seized in the office of his LLC "Prof Advice" during the searches in 2021 was returned to him with significant damages. Which he estimated at 18,450 hryvnias.

To be fair, the court denied his demand, but this is not the final decision – the case is in the cassation instance. But from this court decision, it becomes known that there is indeed a criminal case against Andrey Martynyuk and his company LLC "Prof Advice". It was initiated back in 2018 under part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Fraud in especially large amounts) under No. 12018000000000698. It was not possible to track the fate of this criminal case in open registers, but judging by the text of the economic court’s decision, the equipment seized from Martynyuk was returned, and the case collapsed.

How does LLC "Prof Advice" relate to the activities of the Fresh Forex Ukraine exchange, which supposedly has its own legal entity - LLC "Fresh Forex Ukraine"? Because Fresh Forex Ukraine of Andrey Martynyuk operates under several brands: Want Trade, Want Broker, Prof Advice LLC, Omni Stock Investment, and so on. "Prof Advice" is one of the offices, or more precisely, call centers, from where Ukrainians are called using stolen or bought databases offering profitable investments in the stock market. Specifically, under the brand of LLC "Prof Advice", the exchanges Want Trade and Want Broker operated. Those who fell for this "investment" eventually face cruel disappointment – after the victim is completely squeezed and all possible money is taken from them, the "investor" is simply blocked.

As for FreshForex Ukraine itself, it still operates successfully. This can be verified by visiting its website. Here, those eager to earn money easily and quickly are offered the same – to "invest in the stock market." Moreover, judging by the available languages for communication, this "exchange" is primarily oriented towards the post-Soviet space (including Russia) and the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, mainly developing countries.

Interestingly, last year the main page of FreshForex Ukraine had a banner stating that "FreshForex has no company representations on the territory of the Russian Federation." Although just a few words later it stated: "FreshForex has entered into a strategic partnership with LLC ’Alfa-Forex’. The company was founded by ’Alfa-Bank’ and has a professional market participant license issued by the Central Bank of Russia. You can start working on international financial markets by opening an account with LLC ’Alfa-Forex’." This banner is now gone. Which means that the intermediary in the form of "Alfa Group" of Mikhail Fridman and Herman Khan is no longer needed.

Who owns the FreshForex website – is unknown. The ownership information, usually placed at the bottom of the main page, is not indicated. It only states that "FreshForex is a brand providing access to online trading for clients from over 158 countries worldwide. Among the company’s partners are licensed European liquidity providers, banks, payment aggregators, and systems with which the company has been cooperating for over 19 years."

But formally, the Fresh Forex Ukraine exchange cannot have any relation with LLC "Fresh Forex Ukraine" – since LLC "Fresh Forex Ukraine" was liquidated due to bankruptcy. However, those eager for easy money do not have time to verify this information. On what grounds Andrey Martynyuk operates the Fresh Forex Ukraine website is unknown. Yet, this is still happening, and until now. Until 2017, the site mentioned that its owner was Riston Capital Ltd (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines). This was false information, and after investigators wrote about it, the information was removed.

Nowadays, there is no information whatsoever about which legal entity owns the rights to the Fresh Forex website, and all documents offered to clients for signing lack any requisites. But the "registration" section states that the client must not be "a citizen or resident of countries like Belgium, China, North Korea, France, Hong Kong, Spain, the United Kingdom, the USA." That is, countries with the most stringent requirements for the activities of such exchanges.

But none of this stops potential "Forex market exchange brokers". By the way, it was impossible to establish whether Fresh Forex Ukraine has any relation to a real Forex exchange. But of course, all this becomes evident only later when the money has vanished in an unknown direction, and complaints can be made only in the following manner:

None of these methods, of course, bring any legal consequences. The final conclusion is not speculative. It is confirmed by the fact that Fresh Forex Ukraine continues to operate, and the "bastards" who offended its founder Andrey Martynyuk are being sued by him for money for "damaged during searches" property.

It seems that the money collected by the organizer of this entire scam, Andrey Martynyuk, is not enough for him. Although here, one could express support for him – given that our law enforcement system is so flawed that it cannot prove the obvious, and all the cases it pompously initiates collapse after beautiful plots about another "mask show," then let it pay. The trouble is only that it is the same ordinary fool citizen of Ukraine who will ultimately pay Martynyuk – the money will be taken from the state budget, not from any particular investigator who failed the case. But that’s another story.

Ольга Балакина