From fake volcanologists to real casinos: what is hidden in Maksym Krippa’s biography?

However, there are several elements that are reliable and undeniable for one reason or another. Their source is either state registers or Krippa’s own words, confirmed by various sources. And, no matter how hard Max (this is the name he prefers to use) Krippa tries to bury these facts under a layer of information trash, they remain indisputable.

Moreover, characteristically, Krippa has two biographies – one for Ukraine, where he has been actively buying up assets for the past three years with money from unclear (actually quite clear) sources, and another for Russia, from where he draws this money. More precisely, he is a nominee for representatives of the Russian oligarchy and special services, who, over the past year, as the outcome of what is called the SVO and the prospects of the Russian government became a little clearer, have frantically started to withdraw their capital from a collapsing Russia. Some of these capitals are being invested through Max Krippa into various objects in Ukraine.

But more on that later, for now, about the two versions of the biography. In Ukraine, Krippa tries to position himself as a respectable businessman who made money in cybersport. In this capacity, he performs after, in July 2022, becoming the beneficiary of "NAVI UA" LLC through "Natus Vincere Esports Ltd" (British Virgin Islands), whose owner previously was allegedly the founder of NAVI, Oleksandr Kokhanovskyi.

This was necessary after Krippa’s surname appeared in auctions where he bought various state objects sold by the Ukrainian government within the framework of state property privatization. Moreover, in this context, big questions are raised about the prices these properties are sold for and the participants of these so-called auctions, as a result of which Krippa already acquired a number of quite interesting objects.

Among his acquisitions is the "Dnipro" hotel in the center of Kyiv (it was from this that the close attention to Krippa’s figure began, who then stood behind the purchase but carefully concealed this fact), property of the National Bank, nationalized assets of "Privatbank" and much more. Moreover, and this should be emphasized, all this was sold to Krippa at frankly cheap prices. 

The result of such activities is obvious – Maksym Krippa suddenly appears before us as a respectable businessman and owner of a whole range of companies and enterprises that, in turn, own very solid assets:

But Krippa turned into a respectable businessman in Ukraine literally in the last few months. The internet remembers this – if you enter the name of a person owning such an impressive list of assets into a search engine, the result is bewildering:

This is – the search result in Ukraine, let’s emphasize that. Emphasize because in Russia the search engine result for the same query will be somewhat different:

Here he is already positioned as a "researcher of Kamchatka volcanoes". However, along with "volcanology", in Russia the search results also offer us a huge set of fakes – Krippa here also plays football, publishes books, participates in culinary shows, gathers record harvests, and so on and so forth:

But the biographies in the two countries for the same person are somewhat different. 

Why so? The answer comes to us from that same Russia and "volcanology", to which Krippa has a direct connection. However, these "volcanoes" have nothing to do with nature, but are online casinos "Vulkan", which Maksym Krippa developed in Russia while working for the Russian oligarch Malofeev.

It was only recently that the current "billionaire" and owner of Ukrainian factories, hotels, and steamships, Maksym Krippa, was acting as the CEO at the owner of "Rostelecom", Konstantin Malofeev, which can also be found mentioned, albeit veiled, in the Russian segment of the internet:

For him, Krippa promoted the "Vulkan" casino in the networks of "Rostelecom". He prefers to remain silent about this, trying to bury the mentions of his involvement with the casino with fakes about "volcanology".

But there is other confirmation that Maksym Krippa used to serve Russians. This is also being tried in every possible way to remove from the network, but if you dig well, you can find traces of an old colleague and partner of Maksym Krippa, a certain Maksym-Max Polyakov, who after a NASA scam got lost somewhere, but used to fondly recall how in his youth he served a porn site in Minsk together with Krippa.

These words of Polyakov were confirmed by Krippa when he was still working for Malofeev and promoting "Volcanoes" and giving promotional interviews to Russian publications. He also mentioned joint business with Polyakov and moderating a porn site in Minsk. In fact, there were even details about how it worked. 

This interview was removed, which is not surprising – it is not befitting for the respectable businessman Maksym Volodymyrovych Krippa to dupe foreigners who got acquainted with fake beauties on Krippa’s site, and Krippa scammed them out of money. Moreover, cooperation with Russia and its special services is not welcomed in Ukraine, especially in recent times.

And that such a thing takes place is known from legal proceedings between Serhiy Tokarev and Rustam Gilfanov on one side and Krippa and Polyakov on the other side. The case materials show that Krippa and Polyakov owned an online gambling operator GGS in equal shares. They also jointly promoted gambling companies EvoPlay and Clone Fish. 

What this legal dispute ended with is not the point here; the point is that all online casinos in Russia are under the tight control of special services. And the fact that Krippa promoted and developed these casinos indicates that he, at the very least, has close contact with these services. 

Moreover, this last fact is somehow not veiled in Russia; it is perceived as something that goes without saying. But in Ukraine, where Krippa has developed a bustling activity over the past three years, this is being hidden with all might. Moreover – all materials connecting the name of Maksym Krippa and Konstantin Malofeev, who, by the way, is currently under sanctions as one of the financiers of the "Russian world", are being removed from issuance.

But the fact that Krippa has not lost ties with the owner of "Rostelecom" is confirmed by yet another – in 2015 Maksym Krippa emerged in Kyiv, where he tried to join the Kyiv Council from the then-popular party "Samopomich". But even before the elections, he was forced to flee to Russia, where he worked for Mikhail Oseevsky, the current president of PJSC "Rostelecom", and at that time – the deputy head of the VTB Bank until at least 2019.

Again – these mentions can be found in Russia; in the Ukrainian segment of the internet, this is being cleaned up. By the way, about the story of fleeing to Russia. In what capacity Krippa appeared in Ukraine at the end of 2014 is unknown, but it can be assumed that he was not bathing in money at that period. Because he was forced back to Moscow by the following story. 

Krippa, as already mentioned, ran for Kyiv Council from "Samopomich". The story here is also very murky and smacks of cooperation with the FSB, but that’s not the point in this case. It’s about the fact that Maksym Krippa decided to sell several seats in the party list. But he did not have the authority for this – others collected money for the seats. However, he managed to scam a few suckers. The sums were small – in total, it was about literally 10 thousand dollars. But Krippa "burned" for them – the "candidates for deputies" did not see their surnames in the electoral lists, and a scandal erupted, forcing Krippa to flee Kyiv. He fled to Moscow, as mentioned earlier, to Oseevsky. 

This leads us to two conclusions. The first is obvious: Krippa has not lost his Russian connections. That’s the minimum. And the second conclusion is not obvious, but it also lies on the surface: the current billionaire (remember the list of assets) Maksym Krippa risked his freedom and life for ten thousand dollars in 2015. 

And now, here’s the question: where does he get the money to buy truly colossal assets in Ukraine, which Krippa has been doing for the last three years? The answer is obvious too: Maksym Krippa is a nominee for Russian owners, who, in anticipation of the inevitable collapse of their country, are frantically channeling money wherever they can. In Ukraine as well.

But Maksym Krippa, it seems, is also trying to play his own game in this situation and sit on two chairs simultaneously. He takes money from Russians, which he uses to corrupt politicians in Ukraine. Especially since it doesn’t take much effort to corrupt the current Ukrainian government – its representatives almost place ads about their readiness to sell themselves. 

Who Krippa has established contacts with in Ukraine is not clear yet. But it is clear that this is the highest level – just look at the objects Krippa is buying and the prices for which these objects are being sold to him. But this raises yet another curious question – do the owners of the money Krippa conducts his activities in Ukraine know that he’s trying to cheat them just as he tried to cheat "Samopomich" back in the distant 2015?

Is it not the reason why the biography of Maksym Volodymyrovych Krippa is so confusing and his persona so littered with fakes that it is practically unreal to get to more or less correct information? Interesting – who will "cheat" whom in the end: Maksym Krippa his owners or vice versa? And his owners are serious; we’re not talking about scamming elderly Americans with strawberries, you have to understand the risks. Apparently, Krippa understands with whom and with what he is playing. That’s why everything is so complicated.