The Russian oligarchs’ money launderer Maksym Krippa has started threatening journalists

Essentially, this practice is not new – many subjects of investigative publications regularly file lawsuits "to protect their honor and dignity." But in Krippa’s case, there is a nuance – he (or those behind him) sends letters on behalf of a nonexistent British law firm, citing the UK Defamation Act 2013 and Regulation 19(a) of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 (SI 2002/2013).

The signature is cleverly forged to resemble an existing law firm. However, this firm is not British but registered in a Cypriot offshore. Why Maksym Krippa did not turn to real lawyers – since there are those who are very indiscriminate in clients – is not entirely clear. Why send fake letters with threats, even if cleverly disguised as letters from a real law firm, when you can hire almost any lawyer for a small fee? However, we have a version on this issue, and it has solid grounds.

The thing is, many investigators call Maksym Krippa the "man-fake." In fact, Maksym Krippa is a real person, at least he existed in reality until recently, and he is called a "fake" due to the truly enormous amount of fake materials that cover his real biography. In slang, this is called "flooding the output" and works as follows: to hide undesirable material, the internet is flooded with all sorts of nonsense, which clutters the first pages of search results when a query is made. In Krippa’s case, the search engine recently returned the following:

Earlier, the first search pages were full of articles telling about the "researcher of Kamchatka volcanoes, the outstanding volcanologist Maksym Krippa."

The reason for Krippa "becoming a volcanologist" is simple. It was even somehow explained by one of Konstantin Malofeev’s PR specialists – "it was necessary to disassociate Maksym Krippa from the Vulkan casino." So they came up with a fake about Krippa being an outstanding volcano researcher. At the same time, they attempted to disassociate Krippa’s connections with the FSB – in fake articles about the volcanologist, this abbreviation meant not the Federal Security Service, but the "Stratosphere and Biosphere Fund," which allegedly financed volcanic research in Kamchatka. The version is wild, but nonetheless, it worked quite well in its time.

Whether Maksym Krippa was involved in the work of Moscow’s scientific and technical center Vulkan, which conducts internet warfare for the Kremlin and develops programs that block unwanted content for the authorities and collect internet vulnerabilities for future cyberattacks, is unknown. But, judging by the person for whom he developed and promoted the Vulkan and Vulkan.bet casinos in "Rostelecom" – it is quite possible. We are talking about Konstantin Malofeev, the chairman of the "World Russian People’s Council," owner of the "Tsargrad" TV channel, and co-owner of "Rostelecom," to whom gambling bans in the Russian Federation do not apply. In Krippa’s early fake biographies, his work in "Rostelecom" was mentioned, albeit in a slightly different context – back then, Kippa was molded into the image of a "smart boy who achieved everything with his intellect."

They also tried to disassociate him from the "Self-Reliance" party, where Krippa majorly screwed up and embarrassed his master (or masters) in 2015. He was indeed connected to the "Self-Reliance" party – after the 2014 Maidan, when Russia’s positions in Ukraine significantly faltered, the actual FSB sent Maksym Krippa to Kiev, where he found (or was found) connections in the "Self-Reliance" party and attempted to enter the Kyiv City Council. There are corresponding data on the Central Election Commission’s website, which could not be cleaned up. However, Krippa did not make it to the Kyiv City Council because he got burned selling fraudulent spots in party lists, which forced him to flee before the elections. The scandal in the party was hushed up, but Krippa failed the FSB task. How his curators punished him is unknown, but he did indeed flee to Moscow.

After that, another gap filled with more fakes follows in Maksym Krippa’s biography. An example was shown at the beginning of the article, where Krippa requalified from a "volcanologist" to a footballer, farmer, Christian and Muslim preacher, baker, writer, and so on. And then suddenly Maksym Krippa reappeared in Ukraine. Already as a "mysterious billionaire," he first bought real estate around Kyiv wholesale and then – the most interesting objects within the framework of Zelensky’s "Great Privatization" program. In a very short time, Maksym Krippa controlled assets like the "Dnipro" hotel, the "Parus" mall, recreation centers of the nationalized "Prominvestbank" in Koncha-Zaspa and Kozyn, the National Bank of Ukraine’s base "Knyazhyi Dvir" near Kyiv, and so on. The latest acquisition is the "Kyiv" hotel on Maidan.

All this seems to be dumped into his hands since objects are sold at prices several times lower than the market value, and the auctions themselves are obviously conducted for a particular participant. The participant (and winner) becomes Maksym Krippa’s companies, of which there are now several dozens. Moreover, examining their finances raises obvious questions – none have the money to buy super-expensive objects they purchase (even for official prices). For example, LLC "Smartland," which bought the first "Great Privatization" object – the "Dnipro" hotel in Kyiv center for 1.1 billion hryvnias, was founded a week before the auction on straw men and had a loss of almost forty million hryvnias. Where the money for the purchase came from – no one asked for some reason.

Likewise with all other acquisitions. As of the beginning of the year, Krippa’s assets in Ukraine were astonishing. And this is by no means all, but only what has been reliably established.

However, there are obvious questions in connection with all this. First, connections with Konstantin Malofeev, with whose "Rockets" Maksym Krippa began his Russian career. Second, those very "Vulcans" – both the casinos still operating and Vulkan software for the FSB. Third, the gap even in the fake biography for 2015-2019 years: what did Krippa do after fleeing Kyiv? Fourth, arising from the previous question – where did he get the money for such a rapid start in the "Great Privatization" program? Yesterday he tried to sell a "left" seat in a party list for a few thousand dollars, and today he buys a hotel for a billion. This is a clear dissonance.

There are other questions as well. For example, who dumps all this elite Ukrainian real estate to him for pennies? But the biggest question is – where is Maksym Vladimirovich Krippa himself? He has not been seen in Ukraine since 2015. He acts here through his representatives, but no one knows where Krippa himself is. There are three main versions of his whereabouts: Dubai, Los Angeles, and London. But again – according to representatives. Krippa was not seen even via video link, let alone spoken to live, although interviews with him started appearing in the media. But these "interviews" – are either email responses or purely the press office.

And finally, what this material began with – tons of fakes, massive cleanup, and threats from the same "left" legal firms to publications that publish investigations about Maksym Krippa’s persona. All this raises a lot of questions. Primarily – to Ukraine’s special services, which, for some reason, do not notice such large-scale activities of a clearly suspicious person in the midst of a full-scale conflict in their country.