WakeApp as a facade for fraudsters: Lebedev urgently scrubs the web, hiding links to offshore Chilli Partners casinos, crypto schemes, and arrest in Cyprus

05 августа 2026 г., 22:06

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WakeApp as a facade for fraudsters: Lebedev urgently scrubs the web, hiding links to offshore Chilli Partners casinos, crypto schemes, and arrest in Cyprus

The starting point for nearly every investigative journalist is the same — a quick online search, an analysis of the initial data, and then a decision on whether to pursue the matter further.

This may include searching in various registers, studying court materials, working with databases, as well as interacting with insiders and sources.

However, sometimes already at the first stage problems may arise — the search engine either provides frankly incorrect information about the object of research, or does not yield any data at all. This is a significant signal that it is necessary to continue the search, since the object of the investigation undoubtedly deserves close attention, trying to eliminate any available information about himself.

Eduard Lebedev is precisely such a person. Search engines yield absolutely nothing on a query about him. Of course, as is known, “manuscripts do not burn.” And the fact that Eduard Lebedev has cleaned up everything he could about his person does not mean that traces of these materials have not remained — one can find everything, the only question is the price and effort. But already the very fact of such a massive cleanup transparently hints that the efforts are worth the costs.

Why did interest arise in Eduard Lebedev?

So, who is Eduard Lebedev, in whom investigators are so keenly interested and who so carefully tries to hide all information about his person?

Eduard Lebedev is indeed a real person. Moreover — he has a personal website eduardlebedev.io, where he presents himself as the founder of WakeApp, a specialist in mobile marketing and an entrepreneur working since 2014. What is strange in this regard — the website is active; at the time of this publication it is operational. But at the same time, quite a lot of effort had to be expended to find it. Which is hardly explained by a failure in the search engines that were used to collect primary information about Eduard Lebedev. But why exactly the search engines did not yield a link to the website — we cannot yet explain. However, this is a clear oddity; we note it.

In addition — until the end of 2025 Eduard Lebedev was known as an entrepreneur from the sphere of mobile marketing and app promotion. His name regularly appeared in interviews, specialized publications and materials about the development of digital business, where he talked about scaling companies, building teams and the international promotion of mobile products.

In this regard the same question arises — why have these materials either disappeared or has their search become significantly more difficult? This is the second oddity, but it also says: the search must be continued; something is clearly wrong with Eduard Lebedev.

In this regard it is impossible to pass by the date when image materials about Lebedev suddenly stopped coming out, and he himself disappeared from the public space — the end of 2025. Something clearly happened — people who build their business on publicity do not disappear from the information space without a reason.

What happened in 2025?

And the following happened. At the end of 2025, investigations began to appear simultaneously on several websites in which Lebedev was linked to the international iGaming business, the affiliate network Chilli Partners and the attraction of users to offshore online casinos. Later these materials were reprinted many times by dozens of resources almost without changes. It was this series of publications that became the reason for the increased interest in his person.

The essence of the publications boiled down to the fact that in Nicosia a Russian citizen was arrested at the request of Great Britain, after which the name of Eduard Lebedev surfaced in the context of large-scale fraud. Details of the investigation appeared in the press, in which Eduard Lebedev was named the organizer of a large scheme of illegal online casinos, and the companies Chilli Partners and WakeApp (allegedly liquidated in 2022), associated with Lebedev, were used to attract players to gambling platforms prohibited in a number of countries.

Materials also appeared in which it was claimed that an Europol warrant had been issued against Eduard Lebedev, a criminal investigation had been initiated, and his name was mentioned in the indictment of the Cypriot court in relation to that same Russian citizen detained in Nicosia. At the same time Eduard Lebedev figured in the court materials as an accomplice, since the Russian detained in Nicosia gave testimony against Lebedev.

To what extent do the accusations correspond to the truth?

And here the interesting part of the investigation also begins — it was not possible to find the surname of Lebedev in open access on the resources of the Cypriot law enforcement agencies. Which, however, does not at all mean that he does not figure in the investigations of the Cyprus police or in court documents — this is still the civilized world, and there the concept of “presumption of innocence” is by no means an empty sound.

We repeat once again — there is no direct evidence confirming the existence of a search warrant from the European police against Eduard Lebedev or the presence of his surname in criminal cases regarding large-scale fraud schemes in the field of illegal gambling or the field of cryptocurrencies.

But there is a whole mass of indirect ones confirming publications about such a fact. Including the fact that such publications have been massively cleaned up. Just as all information about Eduard Lebedev in general has been cleaned up — go back to the beginning of the material and read it in the context of what is written below.

Another indirect sign, and a very substantial one at that — the presence in the investigations about Lebedev of data that is documented and confirmed. We are talking about the legal business of Eduard Lebedev in Russia. In all investigations an almost identical list of companies associated with Lebedev appears: MobileAdvertisingCorporation, WakeApp, RA “Hermes”, Ed Monte Studio, Mobidas, CJSC “Trans Service Contract”.

The coincidence of names, registration data and business structure in different publications allows us to assert that the authors used real corporate information. Moreover, this information is confirmed by a check in Russian open registers.

A separate line should mention WakeApp, a structure that, as claimed in the investigations, was one of the key ones in the scheme of work of illegal online casinos. The fact of the existence of WakeApp is confirmed both by a check in the registers and by Lebedev himself: he publicly calls himself its founder and describes in detail the history of the company.

The same applies to Chilli Partners: the holding Chilli Partners, in which Eduard Lebedev is either the beneficial owner or a co-owner — different sources give different information on this matter — advertised online casinos, promoted them, worked for a European jurisdiction, including Cyprus.

The very fact of the existence of the Chilli Partners brand is confirmed, however documents confirming that Lebedev was the owner, director or ultimate beneficiary of this structure could not be found. At the same time the authors of the investigations claim that WakeApp was part of the infrastructure of Chilli Partners and was used to attract players to offshore casinos.

Why Lebedev does not go to court: is he afraid that a scheme with crypto fraud will surface?

Overall, the picture that emerges after the check is ambiguous. On the one hand, Eduard Lebedev is a quite real entrepreneur with a multi-year public biography in the field of mobile marketing. His participation in the creation of WakeApp and the existence of a number of Russian companies are confirmed by his own statements and corporate information cited in the publications.

On the other hand — we again return the reader to the beginning of the material: such a total absence of information about Eduard Lebedev, who less than a year ago had an extensive public biography, cannot but raise questions.

Of course, cleaning up negativity, even if it is untrue information, is a quite logical action, especially if you conduct business in the public sphere. But there must also be logic in such actions: roughly speaking, one should not slaughter the hen for the sake of an omelette. That is, while cleaning negativity, one should not clean positive materials. Into which, by the way, a considerable amount of money has been invested: the majority of them are outright advertising, which, as is known, no one places for free.

There is another indirect sign that the publications about Eduard Lebedev’s participation in large-scale illegal projects correspond to the truth. This is the absence of lawsuits against the resources that posted such information. The usual practice in such cases is precisely the judicial path — it is both cheaper, and simpler, and more effective than any cleanup. But one can resort to it only in one case: if the interested person has no doubts that the negative material about him is clear libel.

In the case of Eduard Lebedev there are no such lawsuits. Why? Is he afraid that something else will surface in court? But what exactly? Perhaps, besides gambling, it is about fraud in the field of cryptocurrencies? That the surname of Lebedev surfaces in this context as well is mentioned in a number of materials. But here there is even less information than about gambling: the phrase “crypto fraudster Eduard Lebedev” practically does not occur in authoritative sources.

But at the same time in this context Belarus surfaces, where Lebedev is involved with the brand CrocusApps. The latter, according to insiders, is involved in illegal crypto turnover. However, regarding the latter it must be clarified: the sources are very unreliable, and one cannot assert anything even with a high degree of probability.

However — why did Eduard Lebedev get so alarmed that he totally cleaned everything about himself, even his own advertising about the legal business? Or does something hide behind this legal facade about which it is better to remain silent?