06.12.2024 Cybercrimes

“Joker as a blackmail tool: who is behind the anonymous Telegram channel?

Hromadske: Власник телеграм-каналу «Джокер» знявся з військового обліку, перебуваючи за кордоном - Детектор медіа.

Who is Roman Kravets and how is he connected to the Joker?

Roman Kravets is a former assistant to Hennadiy Korban in the parliamentary by-elections in the 205th constituency (Chernihiv), and a figure in the scandalous election race, where both sides were involved in bribing voters. In 2019, he unsuccessfully ran for the Verkhovna Rada from the Servant of the People party.

Today, Kravets is called a possible coordinator of the Joker Telegram channel, which is used for systematic discrediting campaigns against politicians, officials, and businessmen. Although the man himself talks about selling the channel to third parties.

Blackmail and fakes: how does Joker work?

The Joker Telegram channel (more than 210 thousand subscribers) regularly publishes fictitious “exposés” aimed at politicians and business representatives.

The methodology is as follows:

  • Dissemination of far-fetched accusations and discrediting materials.
  • Threats via the Signal messenger with demands to transfer large sums of money in cryptocurrency.
  • Stopping campaigns after the financial requirements are met.

Cases of blackmail of representatives from politicians to IT business

  • Borys Filatov, the mayor of Dnipro, refused to pay $100,000 in cryptocurrency, after which the campaign against him continued.
  • Dmytro Dubrovsky, co-founder of Uklon, publicly stated that the company was demanded $200,000 to stop the attack through an
  • intermediary known to his partner Serhiy Smus.
    In addition, the server lists the “victims” of Joker’s attacks:
  • IPeople’s management and owners.
  • Yuriy Bolokhovets, Director of the State Enterprise “FORESTS OF UKRAINE”.
  • “Citrus.
  • Chairman of the Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries – Rudyi Ivan.
  • Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Honcharuk – Yuriy Golyk.
  • “AVTOMAGISTRAL-SOUTH” LLC.
  • Director of Naftogaz of Ukraine – Oleksiy Chernyshov.

Trips on the “Way” and Kravets’ white ticket

Roman Kravets, using his influence and illegal manipulations with the Shlyakh system, turned martial law into a personal opportunity for unimpeded travel.

Despite the ban on traveling abroad for most men of military age, Kravets repeatedly left Ukraine, hiding behind fictitious documents and dubious permits.

Kravets’ main trips abroad include the following periods:

  • October 2023: left in a Mercedes-Benz S550, returned in another car registered to a 67-year-old woman.
  • April 2024: visited Saudi Arabia for the boxing match between Usyk and Fury.
  • September 2024: Together with a model girlfriend, he spent time in Paris, staying at the Shangri-La Paris hotel, where the room price reaches $6,500 per night.

Kravets and his companion actively visited luxury boutiques such as CHANEL, Gucci, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton, spending a lot of money.

Moreover, Kravets often used rented or third-party registered cars to make it difficult to track him. Sometimes, he even traveled with his own driver (currently unidentified), who also had nothing to do with volunteering and was included in the lists of alleged volunteers of a charity or NGO by forging documents.

Forged certificates, travel abroad and $1.2 million in cash

Roman Kravets, through a corrupt conspiracy with officials of the Holosiivskyi TCC and the VLC, organized the receipt of a fictitious certificate of unfitness for service, which allowed him to avoid mobilization during martial law and be excluded from the register.

Facts that expose the criminal scheme:

On July 16, 2024, Kravets allegedly underwent a medical examination at the Holosiivska Medical and Preventive Clinical Hospital and received a certificate No. 1852/2 on his unfitness for service. However, from June 20 to July 20, 2024, he was abroad.
The certificate was signed by another, currently unidentified person, and this confirms the absence of Kravets’s physical presence in Ukraine.
On October 24, 2024, law enforcement officers seized $1.2 million in cash from the Holosiivskyi shopping center and joint venture, allegedly for “services” to evade mobilization.

Kravets, like thousands of other evaders, stayed at home or even abroad, while others risk their lives on the front lines.

In the meantime, Kravets continues to deny the Joker telegram channel and claim his own unrelatedness to it, but the facts speak for themselves.

We have once again submitted materials to law enforcement agencies based on the above and some other facts, so we are waiting for an investigation. Will the Joker pay off this time?

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