Dmitry Gunyashov, Vasilii Mesheryakov, Alexei Gunyashov, Anton Makhno. Probably you never heard these names before.
But as our private investigation shows, these individuals may be involved in the 2 largest fraudulent projects: Cryptopay and Freewallet.
Freewallet – scam project that steals your coins
We started investigating after we encountered hundreds of negative reviews about a wallet called Freewallet. The victims complained that the application administration transferred clients’ assets to personal addresses. In addition, users were blocked from accessing their wallets under the guise of verification. At the same time, the Freewallet KYC scam means that you will not be able to confirm your identity. As soon as the client sends one document, the administration immediately requests a second one. Finally, support can ignore tickets for weeks. As a result, hundreds of people have already lost their savings due to the Freewallet scam.
Alvin Hagg: a man, named Freewallet CEO
If you go to the Freewallet org website, you can see that the project leader is Estonian citizen Alvin Hagg. At the same time, he is listed as a co-founder of the wallet. But upon closer search, we found a number of comments in which the victims claim that Russian citizens Dmitry Gunyashov and Vasily Meshcheryakov are at the head of the fraudulent project. The posts also mention Dmitry’s brother, Alexey Gunyashov.
This point of view looks even more plausible if we compare the following facts:
- The Freewallet org website states that the service is owned by Wallet Services Ltd, a company registered in Hong Kong.
- Such a company actually existed, but was deregistered in 2022.
- On one of the websites, Dmitry Gunyashov indicated that he owns businesses in a number of countries, including Hong Kong.
- However, he is officially listed as a co-owner only in some existing and former companies from the United Kingdom.
From this we can conclude: Dmitry Gunyashov is indeed involved in the activities of some digital projects related to Hong Kong, but does not want to advertise the specific name of the business.
We’ll tell you why this fact matters a little later, but now let’s take a closer look at other fraudulent project: Cryptopay
Cryptopay is scam
Using a simple search, we easily established that Russian citizen Dmitry Gunyashov lives in the UK and is a co-owner of the Cryptopay payment service. We looked for reviews from clients of this company and were surprised to find that they complain about exactly the same methods of deception on the part of the administration as the victims of Freewallet.
From this we can draw a simple conclusion: Freewallet org and Cryptopay me, are scam projects that have similar methods of stealing customers assets!
Now let’s see what role Dmitry Gunyashov, Vasily Meshcheryakov and other mentioned persons play in these fraudulent projects.
Who is Dmitrey Gunyashov
Dmitrii Gunyashov (sometimes also named as Dmitrey or Dmitry Guniashov) a native of the Russian city of St. Petersburg. This man was born in 1988. He received his higher education in Russia, but around 2013 he moved to the United Kingdom, where he founded the Cryptopay service. Until now, he is listed as a co-founder and project manager.
At the same time, there is evidence of Dmitry’s involvement in illegal activities through other projects. So, a few years ago, posts were published on the Reddit forum claiming the involvement of Dmitry Gunyashov, his brother Alexey, and another native of Russia, Vasily Meshcheryakov, in the activities of Freewallet.
Who is Vasiliy Mesheryakov
We spoke in detail about this person in one of the previous materials.
Like Gunyashov, Vasily Vyacheslavovich Meshcheryakov was born in Leningrad. This happened in 1984. Like Gunyashov, Meshcheryakov has no “history”. Vasily did not publish any information about his education or information about any successful startups.
However, according to information from open sources, it is not difficult to understand what role Meshcheryakov plays in the group of fraudulent owners of Freewallet and Cryptopay.
Back in 2016, Vasily became the founder of a telegram channel and blog dedicated to video games. The ability to work with a young, computer-savvy audience helped Vasily think through the concept of “promoting” Freewallet and Cryptopay. So today it is he who is responsible in the company for PR and media promotion of the fraudulent schemes created by Gunyashov.
How do Freewallet scam owners avoid punishment?
After studying our information, you may ask yourself a question. How do people involved in several large fraudulent projects avoid responsibility? This happens for 2 main reasons:
- Fraudsters disguise all their actions as random failures or “KYC/AML Policy”. This gives them some legal protection.
- Even if law enforcement officers notice traces of a crime in the actions of Gunyashov, Meshcheryakov and other persons involved, the start of the investigation will be hindered by the fact that the defendants often change their places of residence.
For example, Dmitry Gunyashov, as of 2022, was registered in Russia, at the address St. Petersburg, Engelsa Avenue, building 111, apartment 516. At the same time, on Gunyashov’s Facebook page it is indicated that he lives in Portugal, and his business connections lead to London, where the Cryptopay office is located at 8 Devonshire Square. Despite this, Gunyashov still uses the Russian phone +79219965549 for communication.
Similarly, Vasily Meshcheryakov indicates on social networks that he has left the Russian Federation. At the same time, he continues to use a phone issued in Russia (number +79319693585).
| Question | Dmitry Gunyashov | Vasilii Mesheryakov |
| Adress of living | Engelsa avenue, 111, app 516 Saint-Petersburg, Russia |
Savushkina str, 125, building 2 app 119, Saint-Petersburg, Russia |
| Other possible adress(-es) | Lisbon (Portugal), London (UK) | |
| Phone | +79219965549 | +79319693585 |
| Role in Freewallet and Cryptopay scams |
Possible leader and real Freewallet owner |
Marketing advisor, PR-manager |
All this confuses the traces of the persons involved. Imagine yourself in the place of a police officer to whom a victim has addressed a statement. You have been able to identify a suspect, but realize that he may live in one of several countries. Where will you send requests? For this reason, it may be easier for law enforcement to refuse to initiate an investigation rather than waste time sending requests.
But we are confident that these gaps will not prevent the organizers of the Freewallet scam from being held accountable. As we find new information about the activities of Gunyashov, Meshcheryakov and other persons involved, we will pass this on to law enforcement officers and publish it on our resources. In the end, everyone who defrauded customers and stole their savings will have to be held accountable for their actions!