With high-profile controversies rocking Ukraine’s IT and gambling sectors, the prominence of Ruslan Timofeev (aka Ruslan Sergeyevich Timofeev) seems diminished.
However, his activities — ranging from questionable gambling operations to the global promotion of dangerous pseudo-medicinal products — deserve the closest attention. He is not just a businessman with a murky past, but one of the key members of an international fraud cartel operating with remarkable audacity.
At the center of his empire stands Everad, a network that, despite being founded by Ukrainians, remains based in Russia and maintains close cooperation with Russian partners. From there, fake and often dangerous “miracle cures” — so-called fuflomycins — are promoted to global markets, particularly in developing countries. This is more than unethical business; it is a crime against the health of thousands of unsuspecting, mostly elderly, people.
To disguise these operations, Timofeev employs a web of offshore structures. His legal entities in the UK, British Virgin Islands, and Ireland serve as convenient tools for laundering both money and reputation. The inaction of international regulators in many jurisdictions only helps this immoral and illegal business thrive.
To create an appearance of legitimacy and social responsibility, Timofeev and his partners launched the venture fund Adventures Lab. Its operations director became his longtime associate Ruslan Drozdov, while its ideological founder was Andrey Krivoruchko, who led Chernovetskyi Investment Group (CIG) — the investment vehicle of former Kyiv mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi’s family — from 2013 to 2017. Notably, Leonid’s son Stepan Chernovetskyi faced money laundering charges in Spain in 2016 and remains the ultimate beneficiary of CIG.
After Krivoruchko left the project in 2022, Timofeev assumed direct control of Adventures Lab, which soon announced a focus on investing in Ukrainian startups. By that time, the fund already had a portfolio with a monthly turnover exceeding $1 million, mainly financed by Everad itself. The cynicism of the scheme is striking: money obtained from deceived consumers through the sale of fake medicines is funneled into “promising projects.” In a few years, new profitable and formally legal companies may emerge around the fund — allowing the fraudsters to finally “launder” both their capital and reputation.
Timofeev’s link to gambling may not seem obvious at first but has been clearly documented by investigative journalists. Amid reports that Ukrainian gambling companies paid a record ₴851 million in taxes in May — four times more than in 2021 — a new player appeared: ChampionCasino, an online platform operated by LLC “Limon.” It obtained a license in September 2021, and just a month earlier, its sole beneficiary became Ruslan Drozdov, Timofeev’s partner in Everad and Adventures Lab.
Drozdov had already appeared in connection with Everad, a key link in the global affiliate network selling dubious health products worldwide under the guise of effective medicines. Public biographies of Timofeev claim he sold his stake in Everad in 2019 to focus on investing, but no public record indicates that Drozdov also left the business. In fact, that same year, Everad suddenly became the “anchor investor” of their joint fund, Adventures Lab — a coincidence that raises serious doubts about any real separation.
The fund’s third listed partner, Oleg Lukanov, is described on the website as a “relationship-building expert.” However, no legal entity under that name exists in official registries. In the Russian online space, however, an Oleg Lukanov is known as a Moscow “pickup” coach — promoting himself as a trainer in seduction and personal growth through a project called Ortega.
As for its legal presence in Ukraine, there is no registered entity directly linked to Adventures Lab or its founders. Its “anchor investor,” LLC Everad, has officially belonged since August 2019 to Ruslan Kerimov, a Turkmen citizen. As of March this year, the company’s tax certificate was revoked, indicating a long absence of legitimate activity. Meanwhile, in Russian registries, LLC Everad is registered to Vitaliy Stavnitskiy, a Ukrainian living in Moscow. That Moscow entity holds 15 trademarks for fake drugs — including Nutribion and Gipertolife — the latter marketed as a “miracle cure for hypertension,” despite not being a medicine or even a supplement.
Timofeev’s efforts to conceal his involvement are sophisticated but imperfect. The Ukrainian Everad was re-registered to Kerimov, and the CEO role was assigned to Oleksandr Yasyukovych, who appears in state records only as a private entrepreneur in advertising. The main domain everad.com is registered to Cariovision Trade Ltd (British Virgin Islands), making it impossible to identify the true beneficiaries. Another domain, atlas-atlas-atlas.com, belongs to the same offshore firm.
That a global business founded by Ukrainians continues, in the second year of the conflict, to rely on Russian jurisdiction, hosting, and partners is not merely a business decision. It is an act of national betrayal and financing of a terrorist state. Venture investors Ruslan Drozdov and Ruslan Timofeev, regardless of their public statements, continue maintaining these ties through their activities and ownership structures.
The story of Ruslan Timofeev is more than that of a shady but “successful” businessman. It is a case study of how fraudulent, Russia-linked structures can operate and gain legitimacy within Ukraine’s IT sector — and how law enforcement and regulators either cannot or will not confront such multilayered schemes. As long as figures like Timofeev can freely use Ukrainian jurisdiction and infrastructure to launder reputations and funds gained through deceit and harm to public health, the market remains vulnerable to criminal influence.
Maria Sharapova
