Pseudobillionaire Mykhailo Romanenko is changing signs on crypto pyramids

Pseudobillionaire Mykhailo Romanenko is changing signs on crypto pyramids

Undetected by justice, the gang of cybercriminals shows no signs of slowing down.

Analysts are sounding the alarm: since the start of the full-scale invasion by the aggressor country, the level of fraud in Ukraine has been increasing at an unprecedented rate. Last year was record-breaking, with as many as 82,609 cases opened under the "fraud" article 190 of the Criminal Code. Not all victims of swindlers report to the police, so the real scale of fraud could be much larger. Meanwhile, in 2022, losses from Internet fraud and social engineering methods increased by 96% compared to the previous year, reaching 1 billion UAH. Last year, 2023, it could have reached 2-3 billion UAH.

Last summer, in the investigation "Cryptocurrency Pyramids" in the shadow of the "Office of the President", we detailed an organization under the conditional name Danvel Group, consisting of two scamming firms - Danvel Ltd and Eternity Business. To give "projects" a veneer of legality, they were registered as limited liability companies in British jurisdiction. The companies ran websites allegedly offering a "unique investment product" containing a "formula for financial success." However, they were essentially financial "pyramids" where the profitability percentage depended on the size of the "investor’s" contribution and the number of new gullible people they brought in.

Judging by public data, at the helm of the scheme is an inconspicuous entrepreneur from Chernivtsi, Mykhailo Romanenko (pictured above), along with his partners from Dnipro, Nazar Babenko and Ihor Kotov.

Nazar Babenko and Ihor Kotov

In 2022 and 2023, Danvel Ltd and Eternity Business actively promoted themselves not only in the Ukrainian and Russian-speaking segments of the Internet but also in the English-speaking one. The information campaign focused on the indecently luxurious lifestyle of the figures involved (Romanenko, Babenko, and Kotov), hinting heavily to the audience about the possibility of making big money without much effort. For example, image publications claimed that Mykhailo Romanenko had amassed a fortune of $1.5 billion in cryptocurrencies (which, of course, was not substantiated) and had collected an impressive $10 million supercar collection (which is also a clear fallacy).

At the time of publishing our last year’s investigation, profile monitoring resources already considered the Danvel and Eternity Business projects "suspicious" and "potentially dangerous." After the publicity, the fraudsters began some reformatting of their "business."

In September of last year, the domain name eternity.inc was registered, now redirecting from the site eternity.business, where the eponymous "pyramid" was initially built.

There is also a redirect from a dozen other sites dedicated to earning easy money online.

On the main page of eternity.inc, it is stated that it is a certain community with free membership. "By becoming a member of our global community, you will gain access to real estate, financial solutions, financial instruments, financial literacy academy - and much more," it says.

The hapless visitor is promised mountains of gold, but vaguely, without specifics. Into what exactly will their money be invested? In what way? How does it work?

The only thing somewhat resembling specifics is "reliable real estate investments."

More details were found among the company’s news, where Mykhailo Romanenko urged patients to invest in elite real estate in Dubai, claiming to be a partner of the second-largest developer in the UAE, Nakheel.

Hurry up to give $10,000 to become a part of one of the most impressive projects – too similar to a scam. In any case, neither Ukrainian citizen Mykhailo Romanenko nor any legal entity associated with him as investors in Nakheel PJSC, controlled by the UAE royal family, are mentioned publicly.

However, if a site visitor to eternity.inc does succumb to Romanenko’s promises and registers, they will immediately fall into a "personal account," where they will be persistently urged to top up the "deposit wallet." That is, to part with their money.

The author pretended to be "a sucker," registered, and feigned intent to throw a hundred dollars into eternity (as the word "eternity" translates from English) to see where and how investors’ money would go.

By the way, the ability to start financial transactions without identity verification (it is present on eternity.inc, but the platform did not require it from me) is one of the signs that the invested funds are not intended to be returned to you.

Upon trying to use "open banking," I encountered a server error (and repeatedly). I concluded that it simply doesn’t work on this platform.

However, SEPA bank transfer (fast euro transfers) turned out to be fully operational – payment details were generated immediately.

As we can see, if an "investor" dares to part with their money this way, it will go to the account of Mandato Financial Services GmbH, opened in the Lithuanian bank Mano Bankas (we tracked it down using the SWIFT code KUSRLT24). But this doesn’t mean you are paying Mandato itself.

Registered in Switzerland, Mandato Financial Services is a financial company specializing in providing financial gateways, banking, e-wallets, etc. So in the case with eternity.inc, the company Mandato opened a bank account in Lithuania for the benefit of the platform’s beneficiaries and conducts payments for them. Making Swiss financiers, permanently surrounded by lawyers, disclose the ultimate recipient is no trifling task.

And in the case of a "cryptocurrency payment," the money will go to an anonymous wallet, the owner of which you will likely never find.

By the way, we checked the movement of funds on the BTC and ETH wallets, used by the platform eternity.inc at the time of publication. No movements, zero. This could mean one of two things. Either Mykhailo Romanenko’s "clientele" is so unadvanced in life that they don’t use cryptocurrencies. Or eternity.inc changes wallets after each transfer from trusting investors so that the compromised address doesn’t appear linked to the "office".

Moving on.

In the "legal notice" on the eternity.inc site, it is noted that it is owned by Eternity Prime Limited; its CEO is an Austrian citizen, Roman Leithäuser.

Roman Leithäuser

According to registration data, Eternity Prime Limited was founded in Hong Kong (PRC) in the form of a limited liability company on October 26, 2023. Although the names of the beneficiaries are hidden, the founder of the company, its CEO Roman Leithäuser, calls "Ukrainian billionaire and driving force" Mykhailo Romanenko.

Mykhailo Romanenko ostensibly confirms this.

Interestingly, does Mykhailo Romanenko himself understand that in the nonsense he babbles on video, the features of a financial "pyramid" clearly appear:

"I want to create a community that provides its members with access to the same opportunities normally available only to wealthy investors. But that is only possible if a truly large community is formed. Again, this means that ordinary people will be able to access financial instruments usually available only to people with significant wealth."

It is worth noting again that a billionaire like Mykhailo Romanenko is not present in any ranking of successful businessmen. He claims his 1.5 billion dollars in bitcoins, which is easier to refute than confirm: in the lists of major BTC holders, he does not appear.

Already in September of last year, we noticed that Eternity started focusing on "reeling in" German-speaking audiences. Judging by the YouTube channel of eternity.inc, the Germans and Austrians are the primary target of the swindlers.

As a result - on December 19, 2023, the Austrian financial regulator issued a warning to investors against transactions with Eternity Prime Limited. "This provider is not authorized to conduct banking operations in Austria requiring a license," the regulator said in a statement.

A few weeks after the warning from the Austrians, on January 3 of this year, Mykhailo Romanenko and co received a "red card" from the International Organization of Securities Commissions. It warns against potential fraudulent and manipulative actions from Eternity Prime Limited.

Soon, the "movements" of Mykhailo Romanenko reacted in the "country" of the company Eternity Prime Limited establishment. On January 12, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) warned the public about suspicious investment products under the name "Eternity.inc forex-packages" offered by Eternity Prime Limited.

"These products were not approved by the SFC for offering to the public in Hong Kong and are suspected to violate the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO)," said the regulator’s statement.

The SFC also noted that the products promise an abnormally high annual return – 36–84%. There, it was transparently hinted that "SFC will take all necessary actions in case of law violation."

Soon after, Mykhailo Romanenko spoke to participants in the pyramid with a video address to the "community members," attempting to disavow the claims of regulators. Allegedly, they’re not "selling" any financial products but only providing free opportunity for community members to invest in "partner products" (saying this, he is apparently confident that neither paper nor digital payment traces will lead to his gang). He indignantly complained that they, at Eternity, are all "D’Artagnans," while around them are enemies, extortionists, and swindlers. Separately, Mykhailo Romanenko reproached lawyers ready to help "investors" get their money back from Romanenko.

In general, it turned out not very convincingly, but amusingly.

By the way, about the humorous. In paragraph 6 of section 1 in "user agreement" with Eternity Prime Limited, it is in plain white English written that minors, insane people, and citizens of Ukraine and the USA cannot enter into a contract with the "platform".

With children and incapacitated citizens, everything is clear. But why such discrimination against Ukrainians and Americans? I report. If U.S. citizens suffer from the Eternity scheme, it will be considered a crime committed on U.S. territory. Several federal services will immediately hunt the schemers, and bank accounts will be completely blocked.

As for Ukraine, it’s likely guided by the rule "Don’t mess where you live." Mykhailo Romanenko, like some of his associates, resides in Ukraine. As far as can be judged, the main office of Eternity.inc is located here, although its target audience is citizens of the European Union. Recently, on behalf of Eternity, a vacancy for "head of customer support" (read – call center manager) was posted on the Robota.ua service. Essential requirement – knowledge of German and English.

Thus, more to come.

Ivan Chip, specially for the projects CRiME and [notable cases]