Clumsy attempts to silence his ties to online casinos and Russia: what is the new owner of the \"Ukraina\" hotel, Maksym Krippa, hiding?
04.12.2024 20:10
What is known about Maksym Krippa’s connections with IT company Evoplay and casino GGBet?
The privatization of the hotel "Ukraine," located on the Avenue of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes in Kyiv, sparked significant interest, not only due to the substantial amount it was sold for — 2.5 billion UAH. First and foremost, the deal attracted attention because it became another, and so far the most expensive, real estate purchase by one of the most private, yet discussed Ukrainian businessmen — Maksym Krippa.
This time, the entrepreneur broke his silence and answered some questions from Forbes-Ukraine, particularly rejecting rumors about his ties to IT company Evoplay, as well as gambling operators GGBet and "Vulkan." However, as discovered by "Comments," Maksym Krippa may have, to put it mildly, omitted some circumstances that sparked these conversations and did not explicitly refute them.
Thus, although IT company Evoplay tries to position itself as a developer of online games, in reality, its "gaming" products represent games or "slots" for online casino slot machines. But something else is much more interesting.
As was claimed in an investigation by the Blackbox Osint project, two of the three mentioned companies were represented in Ukraine by the same person - a certain Sandra Santos Rodriguez. But what’s even more interesting is that she is also declared as the representative of the applicant for the registration of the TM MAINCAST for LLC "Maincast." The latter is officially engaged in organizing esports tournaments and is owned by MAINCAST LIMITED, registered on the island of Cyprus, and according to YouControl service data, 100% owned by Maksym Krippa.
Why two of the three companies, which supposedly do not belong to the businessman, trust the same person, who acts for Krippa himself, to represent their interests in the registration of a trademark in Ukraine, and moreover, a foreigner — the buyer of the "Ukraine" hotel remained silent.
Also, Blackbox Osint provided a screenshot from the GetContact service where Maksym Krippa is allegedly signed as "Krippa Maksym Volodymyrovych Evoplay."
When registering its trademark for the online casino "Vulkan," a wiser decision was made — another person became the representative. The casino operates under the TM VULKAN CASINO by the license of LLC "Conqueror", which was owned until 2021 by a Cypriot citizen Theodoros Theodoru. YouControl asserts in its investigation of Ukrainian online casinos’ owners that the Cypriot citizen owned LLC "Novologik," where Maksym Krippa himself worked as director from 2010 to 2015.
Another strange "coincidence" is the fact that the secretary of MAINCAST LIMITED, which belongs to Maksym Krippa and controls the esports company LLC "Maincast" is another Cypriot company - ONE WORLD SECRETARIAL LIMITED. And surprisingly, the director of the latter is the same Theodoros Theodoru, who worked with Maksym Krippa for 5 years when he was director, and who left before the future owner of the online casino "Vulkan".
As a result, it seems that despite Maksym Krippa’s statements, his LLC "Maincast" is indeed connected with Evoplay, GGBet, and "Vulkan" through the figures of Sandra Rodriguez and Theodoros Theodoru.
However, Maksym Krippa did not wish to explain or refute these connections and related questions more thoroughly in his responses to Forbes-Ukraine.
Ольга Балакина
