While the virtues of digital assets and platforms get extolled regularly, there’s a hideous side to this virtual space: the criminally-minded roam free looking for investors to devour.
With unsuspecting investors not doing enough due diligence, many scammers masquerading as businessmen fleece them of their investments by selling them worthless tokens. The lack of regulation hasn’t helped as no one is ever held responsible for the loss of funds suffered by investors to these scammers.
Since cryptocurrency became a thing, many investors have lost huge sums through scams, exploits, and frauds orchestrated by a collection of people that are fully conscious of the loopholes in the digital space.
The Man, the Myth, the Scammer
From the perspective of a naïve investor, Andrei Khovratov’s profile matches the description of a reputable businessman, which is no surprise as Andrei runs a slick sinister organization with far-reaching tentacles.
The wolf in a sheep’s clothing disguises his nefarious activities by diversifying the proceeds of his wealth into verifiable models while fronting other legal ventures such as consulting. This keeps the unscrupulous and fraudulent activities of the scammer away from public scrutiny.
The Butchering Project called CryptoUnit
Andrei Khovratov and his goons masquerading as crypto experts run an elaborate scheme called the CryptoUnit. Through the project, they register investors as owners of the CRU token, given to these holders as authentication of their ownership of specific shares in some sort of investment portfolio that Andrei Khovratov taunts as the next big thing.
Since fraud is always going to be eventually found out, Andrei Khovratov found a way to delay the inevitable through the stringent registration process. Newbies are carefully selected for the slaughter to avoid their financial demise being traced to Andrei Khovratov.
Typical of most fraudulent outfits, Andrei Khovratov executes his illicit trade through shady companies created solely to perpetuate these fraudulent actions. These companies have changed names multiple times – from SWIG to NEEW – a sign of a suspicious company. Things get interesting when you probe further and discover its one address hosting all Andrei Khovratov’s list of companies.
CryptoUnit: An MMM styled project
While the MMM founder might be dead and buried, others are getting ready to take his throne. Andrei Khovratov looks to be right in the mix with his CryptoUnit project.
This Andrei Khovratov pet project follows the same approach but with a firm grip on who gets in. Members of the unit bring fresh meat into the fold through tasty promises that are never fulfilled.
To guarantee this hook always catches a fish or two, the project is available in multiple languages, so investors of diverse races are adequately targeted.
Members are expected to upgrade on a routine basis to a new package with bogus promises attached. Of course, these promises are never fulfilled as these members are the fattened cows being milked.
The Cover
Keeping such a scheme under wraps can be tough, but Andrei found a way to do it: using a cover. The sleazy conman uses the cover of offering courses to investors interested in becoming financially free to entrap victims. His fraudulent establishment, NEEW has a website that hosts several courses meant to empower users but they can only be purchased using the CRU tokens. This often piques the interests of readers, as the bait has been set. Unfortunately, most of the courses are worthless as they provide no real value to the reader.
The CRU Tokens
Supposedly, efforts were made to ensure the CRU tokens were listed as a security token, but that never materialized. And despite the failure of the token to meet the required stipulations for listing, Andrei Khovratov has continued to ensure the sales of the worthless cryptocurrency to unsuspecting investors.
How has this gone on for so long?
Andrei Khovratov’s scheme had gone on long enough due to a stage-managed marketing ploy. He throws a few crumbs at older members, so the foot soldiers keep doing his dirty work. It’s a well-thought-out strategy that has continued to pay forward for the fraudster.
Due Diligence Is Needed
With Andrei Khovratov still on the prowl for more victims, investors have to be mindful of his schemes. He has recently NEEW has gathered over a hundred million dollars in funding, but there’s no confirmation of such claims.
Having being blacklisted in certain countries like New Zealand, Andrei Khovratov might be looking to test new waters in bigger countries like the US, Canada, and others. Investors are warned to protect themselves from the activities of this scammer by doing sufficient due diligence before investing their money in any venture.
