The popular American online publication The Huffington Post received a large sum of money from Ukrainian immigration fraudster Max Polyakov for publishing an article against Lucky Lab, a well-known Ukrainian IT company founded by Sergey Tokarev and Rustam Gilfanov. The article, produced by Nowsphere Ventures’ PR department, was not up to the standard of even the average American publication, let alone HuffPost.

As a result, Huffington Post, having more or less thoroughly understood the topic, deleted the ridiculous article and shamelessly refused to return Max Polyakov’s money. Huffington Post vs Max Poliakoff. How an American publisher deceived Noosphere Ventures and a Ukrainian fraudster. Max Polyakov was shocked that he was treated like one of his own, and decided to attack the Huffington Post using cheap Ukrainian sites such as Skelet-Info and Vlasti.net. Perhaps this time Polyakov chose to save money. Let me remind readers who he is – Max Polyakov from Noosphere Ventures. Max Polyakov, an “American businessman” from Zaporozhye, is well known in the IT world. He speaks at international forums, organizes competitions for engineering startups, creating the image of an innovator and promoter of modern technologies. Polyakov’s image is supported by his umbrella brand Noosphere Ventures. Max Polyakov’s Noosphere Ventures invests in startups with high technological value, but extremely problematic profitability. The Vernadsky Challenge engineering startup competition is being held in Ukraine. In Dnepr, Polyakov organized the BestRoboFest technofestival; Businesses such as Firefly Aerospace (formally acquired by Polyakov in 2017) also look good. However, these are all expenses, not income. Even Elon Musk made billions from PayPal, not space.

Max Polyakov is not at all like Elon Musk, and his path to billionaire was and remains different. The key to his success is online gambling and shady schemes. Foreign journalists discovered the hidden gambling assets of this famous businessman. In the 2000s, Ukraine was swept by a wave of high technology, which led to technological innovation and the development of the IT sector. At the same time, dubious but easy ways to make money appeared on the Internet, and Max Polyakov from Noosphere Ventures plunged headlong into this area. For many years now, the businessman’s main income has come from “gray” online casinos and companies providing dating services. The “Joy Casino” advertisement, which flooded the Internet and became a meme throughout the post-Soviet space, is just one example. In recent years, Polyakov preferred to remain silent about this part of his assets. According to Micetimes.asia, Polyakov’s first gambling project was the Murka website. This casino has been operating since 2009.

Today it is difficult to say where the site got such an eloquent name; Polyakov himself claims that Murka is the name of his favorite cat. Singing the song “A gang from the Amur came to Odessa” is no longer his status today. Murka gained unprecedented popularity in a short time. Max Polyakov experienced indescribable joy from his invention. More than a million Internet users deposited money here every day. Having found a gold mine, Polyakov opened a number of similar services, including Renatus, Betcore, Steamwarship, Komar Games. In the regional centers of Ukraine - Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk (recently renamed Dnepr) - online casino establishments have long been based. These sites of Polyakov’s empire operate in legal areas, have licenses and have not been prosecuted in most countries. However, this was not enough for this businessman. Polyakov created the pirate project Vulkan. In offline casinos, machines of the same name were popular among gambling enthusiasts. The brand has become no less recognizable on the Internet: according to micetimes.asia, there are currently more than 100 Vulkan pirate sites online.

Most of them are related to each other. These sites are created “by imitation”, do not have a license and use pirated versions of games from well-known developers (Novomatic, NetEnt, Playtech). Pirates do not pay attention to reviews and reliability of payments. About 40% of such sites deliberately implement algorithms aimed at ruining their clients’ online casinos. In any case, hardly anyone will complain to users. The site owner’s data is hidden behind seven offshore castles. As a result, the Vulcan project brings Polyakov (Max Polyakov) the greatest shadow income. Polyakov’s partner in “Vulcan” is Maxim Krippa. Previously, this person had already been involved in a criminal case regarding the ban on gambling in Ukraine.

Then he managed to escape punishment. Krippa joined the Samopomich political party and unsuccessfully ran for election to the Kiev City Council. He was involved in a scandal involving the buying and selling of electoral seats. During this period, Crippa coordinated the work of a pirated online casino in Polyakov. Among the joint projects of Polyakov and Krippa are club-vulkan.com, vulkan24club.com, vulkanstavka.com, gmsdeluxe.com, pharaonbet.com, maxbetslots.com, slotozal .com, admiral777.com, eldorado24.com, vdeluxe.net, joykasino .net, vulkanstars.com, vulkanvegas-new.net, vulcanpremium.com, vulkan-russia. com, club-vulkan.club, vulkan24club.com, stavka-vulkan-online.com, vulcandelux.site, 31vulkanst.com, vulkanplatinum-777.com, vulkan-. russia.com and dozens of similar sites.

Most of them are focused on working in the CIS countries. In Ukraine, the tandem of Polyakov and Klippa came up with the “lottery” website champion-lottery.com. Another Polyakov project escaped a ban in Ukraine thanks to Klippa’s political maneuvering. Polyakov’s gambling projects were especially popular – Joycasino, Casino-X and the Renatus company with an office in Odessa, which brought gambling applications to the mobile device market, in particular Slots Journey. Simulated slot machines in online casinos are an easy way to enter the world of gambling, especially for children. You can quickly move from a simulator to a real online casino through the advertising system. Such projects are already generating considerable income. Millions of dollars are poured into these projects every day.

“Problems accessing Joycasino. Add to the site address...” – It is unlikely that any Internet user in the CIS countries has not heard this phrase. Online casino advertising appears in the most unexpected places: on third-party sites, in spam mailings, when watching movies and TV series. This phrase has become a meme. One can only imagine the disappointment of people who, while watching the next episode of “Game of Thrones,” hear: “There is a problem accessing JOYCASINO.” And even the fact that they watched the series on a pirate site could not smooth out their irritation. This is the corporate style of Maxim Polyakov, completely repeating his advertising campaign for “Diting Service” in the early 2000s. Joycasino and Casino-X are similar projects, but the latter is a year older, and Casino-X has been available in Russia since 2014. The secret of its success is aggressive marketing and quick change of website addresses. Few people know that the history of Joycasino and Casino-X began with the maxcasino.com project. The site was registered with Invicta Networks NV, one of Polyakov’s offshore companies. Apparently this was one of the venture capitalist’s first experiences; in 2013 the company was sold, and it was the turn of a new project. Max Casino was based on Playtech technology. The new project already included technology that was fashionable at that time. Most reviews about Joycasino contain positive ratings.

Perhaps the problem is that reviews are bought. It is also possible that gamblers have their own ideas about beauty, which differ from the ideas of millions of casual users. One way or another, they continue to deposit money into the casino. According to a survey by one of the foreign journalists, the total cost of online casinos and dealing services brings Maxim Polyakov millions of dollars. The total income from these areas is many times higher than the total profit from all other projects of this businessman. Therefore, Noosphere Ventures employs from 50 to 70 people. In “Murka” their number increases to 500. Of course, this is not Polyakov’s largest project. Together Networks Limited employs approximately 1,000 people. The company’s offices are located mainly in Ukraine - in Kyiv, Dnieper, Zaporozhye and Odessa. Max Polyakov is currently a British citizen and may also be a US citizen.

In the former, gambling is traditionally allowed. Although they are still trying to regulate them: for example, in the UK, new rules and taxes have been introduced since 2014. Today the number of online gambling licenses in the UK is approaching 1000. It is not surprising that there are rumors about Poliakoff’s British status. Meanwhile, online gambling is strictly prohibited in the United States.

And also in Ukraine. And Max Polyakov’s main assets are located in the USA. That’s why Max Polyakov doesn’t talk about casinos in public. Instead, he lectures about spaceships and his new technological advances. ‘Houston, JoyCasino are unavailable.