Contract manipulation and client deception, or Why Alexander Orlovskiy and Financial Freedom Academy face legal liability
Who tried to «divide » me into 40 thousand UAH.
Despite the fact that our small editors are trying to track the appearance of new scammers on the Internet (especially with the prefix «crypt»), this rising star of «scam» – Alexander Orlovskiy, the creator of the fake Financial Freedom Academy –, did not immediately come to our attention.
Alexander Orlovskiy and emerging sewage
Two weeks ago, news began to appear with intriguing headlines: «Alexander Orlovskiy — another information gypsy or crypto expert? Reviews and exposure», «Alexander Orlovskiy — scammer and swindler? Reviews and the whole truth about making money on crypto» and the like.
«Revelations», written as if as a carbon copy, boiled down to the fact that in fact Alexander Orlovskiy was not a «scamer», but a lamb carrying the light of crypto-enlightenment. Almost every such publication contains a photo of Orlovskiy in a luxurious setting (they say, he won’t be so rich in rubbing change in his pockets) and veiled but urgent advice to enroll in this character’s courses for the sake of personal financial growth.
Looking ahead, I note that Alexander Orlovskiy and his servants are not at all aimed at small things – has been tested on themselves.
All «revelations» that rehabilitate Orlovskiy primarily appeal to the fact that positive reviews of him and his courses allegedly predominate on the World Wide Web. But here’s the problem: such publications about Orlovskiy have glaring signs of «image quality» (that is, this is «orders»). If only because in each of the «revelations» they epically depict what a great guy Alexander Ostrovsky is, but not a word about who exactly and what exactly accuses this newly minted cryptoguru of.
At first sight, – is cheap, angry and smart. But Alexander Orlovskiy, with such primitive information activity, clearly did not achieve the result he wanted. His diligence was noticed and appreciated. And all the shit that he so diligently buried deeper poured on him again.
Last week, media project 360ua, citing sources in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, reported (this message was picked up by many other Internet resources) that «on May 3, 2024, a criminal case was opened against Ukrainian citizen Alexander Alexandrovich Orlovskiy, who has been living in Dubai» for the last year. The publication writes that «Alexander Orlovsky is known in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, the UAE and Turkey for selling non-existent cryptocurrency at a discount, trading rates, as well as creating pyramids according to the Ponzi» scheme. Citing anonymous sources, the publication claims that Alexander Orlovskiy owes investors more than $4 million in his «cryptopyramid».
Moreover, allegedly a criminal case was opened against Alexander Orlovskiy based on a collective statement from defrauded investors, buyers of pseudo-courses, as well as ordinary gullible citizens who transferred money to Orlovskiy to purchase cryptocurrencies«.
There may be two explanations for this.
First, the simplest thing is, our colleagues «hit the bar, » informant leaked false information to them.
Second a little more difficult. As a rule, criminal proceedings are immediately opened against a specific person if, roughly speaking, the defendant was caught by the hand at the crime scene. According to the victims, albeit collectively, proceedings will be opened upon the application. And at the initial stages, investigators need to check this statement to determine whether a criminal offense actually took place (not to mention the disclosure of suspicion to someone).
It doesn’t sound that difficult, but the process itself can take many months. If indeed an application was filed against Orlovskiy with the National Police, and, relatively recently (in May of this year), investigators may not have physically had time to collect the necessary data. For one simple reason – there is a shortage of investigators and congestion in the courts. [And therefore we did not see any mention of Orlovskiy in the registers in the context of «criminal »].
It is noteworthy that it is extremely difficult to find live reviews from those «students of crypto-mentor Orlovskiy who spent a lot on his lessons and were dissatisfied, to put it mildly. The corresponding review page of the largest Ukrainian review site otzyvua.net about Orlovskiy’s courses is completely positive. «Very useful and interesting», «how happy I am», «earned $3000 without investment», «thanks to Sasha Orlovskiy for our happy childhood».
Your humble servant threw a little negativity in there for the sake of experiment.
As you can see, less than 20 minutes later, some body threw its five stars about nothing into reviews. Although there was a time gap of as much as a week between my negative comment and the previous positive one. That is, Orlovskiy’s team carefully monitors the largest review sites and drowns all the negativity about «guru» with fake positive reviews.
And not only that. Having examined the review page about our cryptomentor’s courses on the same otzyvua.net, I could not get rid of the feeling that Alexander Orlovskiy periodically contributes a certain amount of money to the site administration so that it can demolish the comments of the dissatisfied (it is quite possible that mine will soon be demolished).
However, «cleaners» were not pedantic enough: they missed comments on some reviews. See for yourself.
Let’s go lower.
As you can see, one of Orlovskiy’s former students claims that the «cryptoguru» courses, figuratively speaking, are not entirely of high quality – none of the author’s 120 «classmates came to crypto success.
Below – is the same story.
There are several other review services where Alexander Orlovskiy has not yet entered with his edits. For example, here.
Here you can find enough information about how the «lessons of this crypto-mentor go, and what results » students usually achieve«under his » mentoring«.
I quote Anton from Lviv (with some edits):
If you are a person who just wants to structure your knowledge a little in cryptocurrency and find out what areas exist, then basic training for a minimum price will suit you. Although, to be honest, the structure and presentation of information here is 3 out of 10. Weak presentation of the material, it is felt that Alexander approached teaching unprofessionally, and is unloading information directly from his head. There are channels on YouTube with much better serve (well, really much cooler) and for free. If you really hope to make money in crypto, then I definitely advise you to find those who are really interested in this, and not this course.
The arguments are as follows:
1. Zoom meetings with specific answers are regularly postponed and are often presented not by those who make money from crypto, but from teaching cryptocurrencies.
2. Outdated information submitted on the course (1-2 years of lag), which is no longer relevant. Sasha does not want to update the information, because his exchange rate is still bought.
3. The declaration of support by Alexander or curators (students – editor’s note) corresponds to reality by 5-7% of what should be. During the 90 days of the course, communication from curators or Alexander was almost zero. They are not interested in how the student is doing, whether he managed to master all the material. Didn’t do the test task – don’t care, the main thing is to pay. I wrote a request less than 5 times (for a consultation – editor’s note) - I don’t care about you, the main thing is that – paid.
4. No one gives feedback on the tests, and then the question arises: why these tests? (those who have completed the course will confirm this).
5. By paying for an individual course, you will receive exactly one consultation, which may have been stupidly dictated and recorded, and then sent to everyone who paid. Alexander Orlovskiy does not immerse himself in nuances, all the advice is carbon copies. This is very noticeable. In this regard, the rate is simply similar to fast food; you should not overpay for it. I don’t recommend buying.
6. I conducted a survey on our stream, out of 127 participants, less than 5% managed to earn at least something, everyone else was told that you were simply unlucky.
7. No one responded to the demand to return the funds, as you understand, because they had already been spent somewhere on advertising the next course ())
Orlovskiy has a simple earning mechanic: he sold the course, invested a little money in crypto, a little in the marketing of the next course, bought himself a little millionaire attributes... then he exposed those who accidentally earned as large cryptans, and on the bull market your funds that he invested, they brought him a little proofs... This is such a simple scheme.
Alexander Orlovskiy and a pensioner who drank «»
If you don’t dig very deep, you get the impression that Alexander Orlovskiy – is a typical representative of such a type of rogue as «info-gypsies». We are talking about fraud, in which a person, posing as a successful professional, sells information products at a high price that are of virtually no value.
But our little editorial team always digs deeper.
Last Saturday morning, the author of these lines suffered from boredom, and therefore decided not to postpone the analysis of the «case of Orlovskiy» until Monday. I filled out an application for a trial free crypto-mentor course and, frankly, by the evening I completely forgot about it.
Already in the evening, when I was paying for alcohol at the supermarket checkout, my phone rang.
«Have you forgotten that you have an online seminar on cryptocurrencies at 19:00?» - asked a pleasant girlish voice.
«Do you know that Bitcoin technology is as old as «iPhone»? – Orlovskiy said. – When Bitcoin appeared, no one believed in this technology, and now Bitcoin alone costs 70 thousand dollars!»
At this point, I suspected that Alexander Orlovskiy did not particularly distinguish cryptocurrencies from the blockchain technology on which they (and not only them) are built, and went to smoke and drink a glass of cognac.
When I returned, I noticed a number of suspicious details. The clock behind Orlovskiy showed ten to ten all the time, comments in the chat were clearly written by bots, the lecturer almost never took his eyes off the laptop screen, as if reading from a prompter.
For the sake of simplification, I would divide the lecture itself into three conventional parts. The first – «cryptocurrency – is easy and simple», attracting the audience with statements that even small children «can make money from crypto». The second – «, even if it is actually difficult and long-term, I have a loyal trading bot that will successfully trade for you for a small percentage of me» - obviously, should dispel the doubts of a potential «student» about the prospects of easy, stressful earnings.
The last one I would call «Don’t be a loser!» Here Alexander Orlovskiy openly puts pressure on greed, says «you can buy expensive things», «take care of your family», «you will always have a supply of money», etc., etc. At the same time, on the monitor next to the mentor’s face there are pictures with expensive «wheelbarrows», stacks of bucks, branded clothes and gold «boilers». And only after the public’s appetite and thirst for easy money seem to have finally warmed up, they are told the amounts and links where to transfer the money.
I also clicked. I was transferred to the «page for booking my studies at the Financial Freedom Academy» crypto academy of the electronic payment service Wayforpay.
To book a place for the coveted crypto wealth, you need to pay some measly 390 UAH. By God, I don’t feel sorry for that kind of money, but when paying through the gateway, I couldn’t see who would actually receive my «contribution». So to speak, names, passwords and appearances.
I spat on this matter and went to finish my cognac. But they interfered with me.
«Good evening! "I’m from the Financial Freedom Academy", the same girl’s voice chirped. – I see that you haven’t booked a place for further training...»
«Ah, you’re talking about it... - I answered and started lying. – You understand what’s going on. In fact, crypto is not new to me, I even trade a little at «Binance» and «Cucoin». I would like to improve my knowledge and skills, so to speak, up, and then deepen them and expand them».
«Oh! – the girl was happy. – We have a course for you «Group mentoring», now I’ll send you a link to the payment...»
«No", I say, "This is the case: I am a man of the old school, I don’t trust all these payment services. I would like to go from hand to hand or to bank details via «Oschadbank» or «Privat 24».
«No problem, now I will send you «telegram» details... Where do you work?»
«Yes, nowhere, - (and then Ostap suffered). – I’m retired. Left the Cyber Police after being wounded in a shootout with crypto scammers».
«Hee-hee! Ha-ha! – the girl at the other end appreciated the joke, or was happy about the possibility of «dividing» into cyber money. – Did you receive the details?»
«Yeah...» - I opened the «cart» and almost choked on beer when I saw a price tag of 40 thousand UAH.
«You need to pay now, places for this course are being taken out very quickly!»
«Yeah, right now...», - I’m in a hurry to screen –’s correspondence the very next morning, having guessed about the trick, it will be cleaned out.
«You need to go to «Privat 24»...
«Girl, calm down, I won’t pay anything, I couldn’t stand it. – Aren’t you afraid to go to prison at all as an accomplice to fraud?»
«Sho?»
«Good night», I said, hung up and went to bed.
Alexander Orlovskiy, offer and front entrepreneurs
The next morning I began to analyze the available information.
Here you first need to focus on the «official» biography of Orlovskiy. That is, on facts that his entourage disperses on the Internet in custom publications. And there are strange inconsistencies in them.
Let’s start with childhood. This is where it is claimed that he grew up in a «small town in Ukraine». And here it is mentioned that Alexander Orlovskiy graduated from high school in Troyeshchyna in Kyiv, which is somewhat larger than the «small town». In most custom publications, the place of birth and childhood of the young talent is avoided.
Orlovskiy’s biographers (like himself) assure that somewhere in 2014, at the age of 16, he himself, without his parents, moved to Poland, entered high school, and then university. If you believe this chick, the administration of the Polish school, having learned that Sasha was homeless, sent him to live in the attic.
After school and entering university, Alexander Orlovskiy was forced to pay for a room in the attic. Therefore, I had to look for a part-time job. In «track record» mentor Orlovskiy gas station, restaurant kitchen, bar.
It was in the bar that Orlovskiy’s fateful meeting with the mysterious crypto businessman took place.
Biographers of crypto-rogue Orlovskiy note that at first he was unlucky with crypto. He put personal savings and borrowed money down the dog’s tail. Until the senior mentors took him to specialized events, shared their experience and gave some signals. And then Alexander Orlovsky took his mother’s earrings (it is unclear whether his mother still went with him to Poland, or whether his son stole jewelry while going on a long journey), took them to a pawnshop, and invested the proceeds again in crypto. And then he got screwed, so much so that he still doesn’t stop drinking.
If you dig for a long time into image notes posted by this mentor’s henchmen on the Internet, you can find even more inconsistencies. For example, when the first rumors appeared that Orlovskiy had a «criminal», from which he was hiding abroad and he was facing «extradition, his entourage replicated the refutation. According to which Alexander Orlovskiy does not hide from anyone, lives and works in Kyiv in his apartment on Lesya Ukrainka Street, so there can be no talk of any extradition, therefore, rumors about Alexander’s fraud and the criminal case against him – are a ridiculous fake.
But then we open a relatively fresh «order» about Sasha, seemingly paid for by Sasha himself, and in it it is written in black and white: «Now he lives in Warsaw with his girlfriend, but is slowly moving to Dubai: last year an expert bought an elite apartment – naturally, with profits from crypto».
This reservation «, naturally, from the profit from crypto», by the way, suggests that the apartment in the UAE was actually bought with money from suckers, which Alexander Orlovskiy usefully teaches himself to receive «profit from crypto».
Shortcomings, manipulations and small lies, like trees behind which the forest is not visible, can hide a large «dilution».
And it begins with an advertisement for Orlovskiy’s educational courses and his free seminar.
No normal, not «scammer», educational project or institution in its advertising will promise you financial success. In the advertising of the Medical Institute, you will not see a surgeon surrounded by fashion models on a luxurious yacht; not a single law school lures applicants with the image of a happy judge in «Porsche» with a suitcase «nal» in the passenger seat.
Normal educational projects and universities give students access to knowledge, teach them how to use it, and teach them professions. They don’t teach how to make money.
Alexander Orlovskiy claims that he will teach. But in order to master the profession of a crypto trader, first you need to study a little at least the basics of economics and finance. Alexander Orlovskiy states that already during your studies on his course you will be able to earn «mower» per week.
On the official website of Orlovskiy’s courses there is a section that an ordinary visitor is unlikely to look into before being tempted by the promises of a cryptomentor. Lawyers, police officers and investigative journalists usually go to such sections. It’s called «Offer Agreement».
In essence, this is a legal document that outlines the rights and obligations of the parties; it states what «patient» actually pays Sasha Orlovskiy for. And he will receive only a «set of training actions using his own method». About at least some profit, not to mention «mower per week», not a single word here. Despite the promises of «mentor» in advertising and at a free seminar, competent lawyers prescribed the offer agreement so that after paying de jure money, Alexander Orlovskiy owes his students practically nothing. Since «payment for services is an acceptance of this Public Offer».
However, the cunning of Sasha Orlovskiy and his team played a cruel joke on him. Read carefully «Public contract» from the very beginning:
We reel it to the very bottom:
By default, the offer agreement is concluded with «executor» - FLP Orlovskiy Alexander Alexandrovich, and not someone else. Which is quite logical. But it is not entirely logical where the money actually goes «applicants» who risked joining crypto under the mentorship of this individual.
And then we return to my Saturday evening. And we look at the details for which Orlovskiy’s people wanted to get 40,590 UAH 00 kopecks from me. (about $1 thousand at the exchange rate).
This is – individual entrepreneur Sergutina Katerina Olegovna.
Look what happens. If some naive «hamster» had been in my place, a mower would have paid for training on «per week» with Orlovskiy, but Sergutina, then, realizing his mistake, he would not have been able to get his money back even in court. Because he didn’t pay Orlovskiy anything, and didn’t agree on anything with Sergutina.
Naturally, I wondered what kind of «fopka» this was, Sergutina Katerina Olegovna.
As it turned out, this FLP is quite fresh – it was registered not much more than a month ago – on June 30, 2024. At the time of writing this article, it had not had time to «appear in most public databases.
According to the Vkursi service, Sergutina Katerina’s FLP is registered in Kyiv on Lesnoy Prospekt (this is a residential area on the left bank of the Ukrainian capital), its main activity is – «other types of education».
As far as we know, Alexander Orlovskiy and his tent Financial Freedom Academy have been operating since at least August last year (at the same time he registered the corresponding FLP). «Sergutina’s youth» FLP suggests that it was not registered to reduce the tax burden on Orlovskiy’s FLP (which in itself is a criminal offense – fictitious business and tax evasion).
There is also no need to say that Katerina Sergutina – is a subcontractor of our crypto-preacher, to whom Alexander Orlovskiy, for example, delegated training to some students. Otherwise, the money for training would go from the Orlovskiy Alexander FLP to Sergutina Katerina, and not from the «certificate» to Sergutina directly (at least if this is done legally).
Alexander Orlovskiy, organized group and prospects for punishment
The obvious conclusion suggests itself that the meaning of registering Sergutin’s FLP is money laundering and covering up traces. And the very assumption arises that such fake individual entrepreneurs have accumulated a whole constellation around Orlovskiy’s scam. After all, according to the latest statements of our cryptomentor, by today almost 15 thousand «students have passed the crucible of his rip-off. These are tens and tens of millions of hryvnia, which, out of harm’s way, need to be washed and withdrawn.
What we have in the bottom line. People are sold an essentially useless information and educational product for a lot of money, groundlessly promising that with its help they can achieve financial success. This is very similar to taking possession of someone else’s property through deception or abuse of trust. That is, a crime under Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Namely – fraud.
And since more than one person is clearly involved here, then, most likely, we have Part 5 of Art. 190 CCU – fraud committed on an especially large scale and/or by an organized group. And this is from five to twelve years of «zone» with confiscation of property.
And here Alexander Orlovskiy and Co. will not be able to hide behind a public offer agreement concocted by cunning lawyers. Not only because in fact this gang is violating its own offer.
The Supreme Court of Ukraine, in its verdict in case № 711/6944/14-k dated 06/03/2021, ruled the following (I quote): misappropriation of funds under a preliminary agreement without the intention of concluding the main agreement and fulfilling obligations under it is classified as fraud.
I’ll translate from judicial to human: if you are a liar and a rogue, then shove your public offer into your ass – you will still be tried for fraud.
Will Alexander Orlovskiy appear in court as the leader of an organized criminal group of swindlers? No. Because I doubt that Alexander Orlovskiy came up with all this, organized it and is the ultimate beneficiary of the fraudulent scheme. I have a great suspicion that the money collected by Sergutina and the same fake individual entrepreneurs does not flow into Orlovskiy’s pocket.
I assume that Alexander Orlovskiy – «face» scams, the tip of the iceberg, is to a certain extent as fake as the FLP robbing his «students».
While analyzing Orlovskiy’s «case», I came across traces leading to more experienced crooks associated with grandiose scams and corruption scandals.
