The Coin Laundry | Meet Lado, crypto-accused behind Disha Patani film, Musk mom’s party

US prosecutors have charged him with running Forsage, an alleged international Ponzi and pyramid scheme that used a rigged cryptocurrency investment platform to steal at least $340 million from investors between 2020 and 2022. Last year, a Georgian court convicted him of laundering $1.1 million in proceeds from Forsage.

When those charges surfaced, Okhotnikov fled to Dubai, where he repeatedly rebooted the alleged scheme, while expanding into start-ups ranging from gaming to anti-ageing supplements based on unproven DNA science.

The examination of Okhotnikov’s business dealings forms part of The Coin Laundry, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), in collaboration with The Indian Express, exposing how the crypto industry has profited from illicit financial flows.

Okhotnikov’s film Holiguards Saga — The Portal of Force is slated to premier in Lisbon on December 20. Billed as a supernatural thriller, it is based on a semi-autobiographical comic book where Okhotnikov plays Dao, a wise man guiding the heroes. For the crypto scam accused, the $10-mn venture mostly shot in Mexico also appeared to mark his entry into Hollywood and a bold new stunt to lure investors.

Social media posts from a November cast party in Dubai show Mumbai-based Patani appearing on stage beside Okhotnikov. When The Indian Express contacted her managers with questions about the film and her awareness of Okhotnikov’s background, they declined to comment, saying only: “We cannot talk about this project as of now.”
Okhotnikov, Spacey and Maye Musk did not reply to questions sent by ICIJ.

India has become one of Okhotnikov’s major targets, particularly investors in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. At a summit in Bengaluru last year, he appeared via a video saying his investment platform had been “rebranded” from Meta Force to Holiverse and that he claimed to have secured “all legitimate licences “ for operations in India.

In April, he chose Mumbai as the venue for the launch of Holiguard magazine through Elledgy, a media and marketing company that has promoted his brands worldwide and co-produced his film.

 

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The first issue was released at a birthday party in Mumbai for 77-year-old Maye Musk, organised by Elledgy owner Elvira Gavrilova (whose last name is now Paterson). Social media posts show a Gavrilova associate photographing Maye as she blew out the candle on a chocolate cake.

Financial records obtained by ICIJ partner’s Expresso show that Elledgy paid for the hotel where the party took place. Guests, including a famous painter and PR executives, described the night as a “whirlwind Indian adventure” and credited Gavrilova “for bringing the magical evening to life”.

Centre of several probes

Alarm bells about Okhotnikov’s platforms were first sounded by the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2020. A year later, the Montana Commissioner of Securities followed suit. Then, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Forsage’s four founders, including Okhotnikov, with fraud. Okhotnikov denied the allegations, while blaming the other founders.

The SEC described a group of Forsage promoters in the US as “crypto crusaders” and, in a 49-page order, it called Forsage “illegal’’ and a “textbook pyramid and ponzi scheme” which had managed $300 million in transactions but with “no bona fide sales”.

The SEC action tipped off banks and authorities in Georgia where Okhotnikov resided until 2022. After denying the SEC allegations, Okhotnikov fled Georgia to Turkey and then the United Arab Emirates.

Okhotnikov was in Dubai when the US Jury in Oregon indicted him in 2023 and his Russian partners with conspiracy to commit fraud, a crime carrying a potential punishment of 20 years in prison. Both the Department of Justice (DoJ) and SEC cases against Okhotnikov are pending.

The 11-page indictment accused Okhotnikov and his associates of allegedly making false claims for Forsage, which was launched in 2020. “They (the defendants, including Okhotnikov) aggressively touted Forsage’s investment program to the public as low-risk and profitable. In truth, the defendants operated Forsage as an unlawful Ponzi and pyramid scheme,” it said.

In March 2024, a Georgian court convicted Okhotnikov in absentia of money laundering and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. An international arrest warrant was issued against him and, according to court records, the Georgian government also seized his assets valued at over $1 million.

Here’s the trailer shown in Venice for Kevin Spacey’s Holiguards Saga – The Portal of Force starring him with Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts and Tyrese, all seen in this 2-minute clip. pic.twitter.com/5pXXkjMyWe

— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) August 31, 2025

Despite mounting legal peril, Okhotnikov launched a new platform, Meta Force, from Dubai. He also boasted about concentrating on the “cinematic universe” of Meta Force — the “Portal of Force”.

Okhotnikov’s latest startup, Meta Whale, has already attracted 40,000 users a month since launching in May, according to its website.

On October 6, Slovenia’s financial watchdog ATVP issued a “public warning” that all of Okhotnikov’s “platforms” —Forsage, Meta Force, Holiverse and Meta Whale — were the same entity, urging investors to exercise “extreme caution’’. The agency said none of the companies were authorised to provide crypto-asset services in the EU.

“This is a case of repeated renaming of the same entity, which is linked to an international fraud in the form of a pyramid scheme based on crypto-assets,” it said.

(Scilla Alecci & Fergus Shiel are ICIJ journalists)