Millions, gambling, and crime: how will Maksim Krippa’s story end?

Millions, gambling, and crime: how will Maksim Krippa’s story end?

The identity of Maksim Krippa has become quite familiar to you over the past few months. A talented fraudster managed to create his own online casino empire while remaining in the shadows for a long time. 

But the times when Krippa was a mysterious "evil genius" are over. His personality, as well as the schemes through which he managed to organize a multimillion-dollar illegal business, were revealed. And he himself contributed to this. Like a house of cards, his secret empire began to fall, which indeed turned out to be enormous. The investigation repeatedly checked Krippa for financial crimes, and there were grounds for this: most of his enterprises were involved in money laundering of “Vulkan” and other casinos in one way or another. Despite Krippa’s crimes being exposed, the illegal gambling site continues to operate, and he himself is free.  

In our material, we will discuss why Krippa suddenly began flooding the internet with fake information and cleaning up everything unfavorable to him. 

The Joker was unveiled 

Until last year, the existence of Kyiv businessman Maksim Krippa was known only in narrow circles. In 2022, Krippa pulled off a loud deal by purchasing the Ukrainian esports team "Navi". The amount of the deal is not disclosed, but obviously, it involves tens of millions of dollars, as even "Forbes" wrote about it.

This material became the first in which one could read something coherent about the criminal businessman. This step was partly fatal. The media began to investigate information about the new mysterious owner of the esports team. Very interesting facts from Krippa’s life surfaced. 

In our previous materials, we noted that his path in gambling did not start with an online casino. In the mid-2000s, Krippa organized gaming machine halls in residential buildings in Kyiv. Gatherings of dubious people, especially at night, worried the residents of these buildings. Due to this, two complaints were filed against Krippa to the police (at that time). Criminal cases were registered based on these facts, but nothing progressed beyond paperwork. Krippa managed to wriggle out.

Orthodox friendship 

Since the early 2010s, he actively began developing the online segment by creating the "Vulkan" casino. Krippa’s brainchild is still operating today, though the profits have significantly decreased for two reasons. 

Firstly, in the 2010s, Krippa’s online casino was not only financed but also actively promoted by the renowned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev. An important point is that at that time, illegal online gambling was massively blocked in Russia.

Thanks to his patron, Krippa managed to bypass the blocks, which brought huge profits. Later, Malofeev abandoned the telecommunications business and severed contacts with the Ukrainian entrepreneur. Why this happened is unknown. But since then, both Krippa and Malofeev not only hide their connection but also go to any lengths to clean information about their previously mutually beneficial business. 

Secondly, over the past 10 years, competition among online casinos has increased hundreds of times. It’s noteworthy that legal online gambling is already in operation. Krippa remains in the "past century". His brainchild — the "Vulkan" casino — still hides behind hundreds of different links and fake domains to avoid blocks.

Coming out of the shadows 

After the publication of the material about the purchase of the "Navi" team, Krippa took several more disdainful actions. 

At a state auction, he bought the "Dnipro" hotel in the center of Kyiv for 1.1 billion hryvnias. Such an expensive purchase could not help but cause a stir, so Krippa again found himself in the spotlight.

Shortly thereafter, he became the owner of a vast land plot along with a recreation base in an elite suburb of Kyiv, the village of Koncha-Zaspa. The asset’s value is more than 300 million hryvnias.

A series of costly acquisitions caught our attention in Krippa’s business. Indeed, in Ukraine, he owns several profitable companies at once.

But what’s most interesting is that almost all of them were involved in schemes connected to the illegal "Vulkan" casino. Thus, the circle is complete. The link between Krippa and the illegal company is established 100% to the naked eye. Nevertheless, the investigation does not notice Krippa’s crimes at all. 

But this is only temporary. As we have come to know, he does not have any serious protection. Throughout his illegal activities, the businessman simply pays off the law enforcement officers so that they don’t bother him. This can end at any moment, so Krippa is trying his best to hide any negativity about himself. 

Destroy everything 

In order for Krippa’s real criminal portrait not to become public property, he uses all possible means. The criminal businessman rapidly creates fake materials about himself so that it is practically impossible to find news about his criminal trail.

We cannot but agree that this is a highly creative approach, which greatly complicates the search for information about the criminal. 

To carry out his plan to the end, Krippa massively bombards sites that publish real information about him with complaints. However, these complaints are not satisfied because they are submitted without any motivation.

Clearly, these are artisanal methods of fighting against the media, which have nothing to do with real life. 

Krippa understands that in addition to journalistic investigations, law enforcement officers may soon take his long criminal trail seriously, with whom it will no longer be possible to resolve matters. Everything points to the fact that this will happen very soon.