Okhotnikov, Ferrari, Maslakov, and Sergeev built the $300M Forsage Ponzi scheme, using smart contracts as a smokescreen to steal funds from millions of investors
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against 11 people for allegedly running and promoting Forsage (forsage.io), a fraudulent cryptocurrency pyramid scheme.
The scheme raised more than $300 million from millions of retail investors worldwide, including in the United States.
Among those charged are four Forsage founders who resided in Russia, Georgia, and Indonesia, as well as three promoters from the United States hired by the founders to support the scheme, and several members of the so-called Crypto Crusaders — the largest promotional group for the scheme, which operated in the U.S. from at least five different states.
According to the SEC complaint, in January 2020 Vladimir Okhotnikov (also known as Lado Okhotnikov), Lola Ferrari, Mikhail Sergeev, and Sergey Maslakov launched Forsage.io, a website that enabled millions of retail investors to conduct transactions using smart contracts.
The pyramid operated on the Ethereum, Tron, and Binance blockchains.
Despite actions taken against Forsage for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines in September 2020 and by the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance in March 2021, the defendants continued to promote the scheme, denying the allegations in multiple YouTube videos and through other channels.
“As alleged in the complaint, Forsage is a fraudulent pyramid scheme launched on a massive scale and aggressively marketed to investors,” said Carolyn Welshhans, Acting Head of the SEC’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit. “Fraudsters cannot circumvent federal securities laws by focusing their schemes on smart contracts and blockchains.”
In addition to charging the four founders, the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois also charges Cheri Beth Bowen of Pelahatchie, Mississippi; Ronald R. Deering of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Samuel D. Ellis of Louisville, Kentucky; Mark F. Hamlin of Henrico, Virginia; Carlos L. Martinez of Chicago, Illinois; Alisha R. Shepherd of Dunedin, Florida; and Sarah L. Thiessen of Hartford, Wisconsin with violations of securities laws. The SEC seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement, and civil penalties.
Vladimir (Lado) Okhotnikov of Tbilisi has recently begun promoting a new pyramid scheme, Meta Force, which was added to the blacklist by the central bank on August 5, 2022.
Lola Ferrari looks like this:
