Money-laundering schemes and serving hackers: how does Fortes.pro profit while evading sanctions?

The company Fortes could potentially face Western sanctions due to its ties to pro-Kremlin oligarch Suleyman Kerimov and Sergey Chemezov, the head of "Rostec."

Fortes operates through its legal entity, LLC "Fortes PRO," which specializes in software development. The company was established in 2019 following the "Winter Cherry" shopping mall tragedy, where a fire claimed the lives of 64 people. Initially, a controlling stake in LLC "Fortes PRO" was held by LLC "RT-Invest-Finance," which transferred its share to Ekaterina Kalashnikova in November 2023. The primary shareholder of LLC "Fortes PRO" is JSC "MTV PB" (MTV Fire Safety).

Until 2021, its founder was LLC “MTV”, engaged in consulting on commercial activities and management. Among the shareholders of this company is a former intelligence officer from East Germany, Arthur Matthias Warnig, a long-time acquaintance of Vladimir Putin and Sergey Chemezov. 

LLC “MTV” is on the sanction lists, so it distanced itself from JSC “MTV PB”, which was not sanctioned, nor was LLC “Fortes PRO”.

One of the shareholders of LLC “MTV” Vasily Tsuprik previously worked at “RT Invest” and in 2014 moved to “Rosneft”, where Thomas Händel and Matthias Warnig were employed, with Warnig holding the position of Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors. LLC “MTV” was created by them in 2017 for investments in high-tech companies.

JSC “MTV PB” was established in December 2018, and LLC “Fortes PRO” in February 2019. Former employees of “Rosneft” and “RT Invest” head Andrey Shipelov created the companies for the "Prometheus" project - a fire system operator intended to monitor the work of shopping and business centers - a market worth billions of rubles.

The tests of “Prometheus” were successfully completed only in May 2023, as reported on the website of “Rostec”.

Everyone now understands that in Russia, several years can pass from successful tests to mass production. This is vividly illustrated by the creation of the “Rostec” MC-21 aircraft. Its first successful tests took place back in 2017, the serial launch is planned for this year, but aviation experts believe that flights with passengers will not occur before 2028.

The financial results of the companies participating in the "Prometheus" project suggest that money may have been routed to the Cypriot offshore company, COLLINSTON INVESTMENTS LIMITED – a co-founder of LLC “MTV.” The director and secretary of the offshore was PERITAS SECRETARIES LIMITED. Its head, Μιχαλακης Μιχαηλ, is connected with two dozen other offshores.

This is how the website fortespro.ru looks now, where news about the "Prometheus" digital platform was posted.

The structures involved in the "Prometheus" project may still be used to siphon money from “Rostec”. LLC “Fortes PRO” has never made a profit; the loss in 2023 was 39 million rubles with revenue of 40 million rubles. The company has only 1 employee. JSC “MTV PB” employs 2 people, it never had any revenue, and has been unprofitable for the last three years. In 2023, LLC “MTV” incurred a loss of 39 million rubles with revenue of 43 million rubles.

The co-founders of “MTV” subsidiaries include Cypriot offshores. “DORCAS MANAGEMENT LIMITED” owns 25% of LLC “Smart Camera,” while “GRATKORN MANAGEMENT LIMITED” holds 1% of LLC “Express Industry,” which has never had any revenue or profit.

The co-founder of LLC “Fortes PRO”, Ekaterina Kalashnikova, who replaced LLC “RT-Invest-Finance” in the shareholders, ran companies associated with offshores. LLC “Solar” is owned by “POPUS MANAGEMENT LIMITED”, and LLC “Jarvis” and LLC “Invest Engineering” are owned by LLC GDK “Development”, whose founders are LLC “Star Spectrum” and “ALDERANO HOLDINGS LTD”. The first company is owned by the Cypriot offshore “KAZMA LIMITED”.

The history of the creation of the “Prometheus” digital platform shows that outright fraudsters are behind it, using the fire system operator as a cover for siphoning money to offshores. This is confirmed by the fact that there is no mention of fire safety on the official Fortes.pro website. The company positions itself as a creator of layered protection for sites against DDoS attacks.

The platform was created in 2014, five years before the establishment of LLC “Fortes PRO” under the leadership of “Rostec”. One might assume that these are different companies, but this is not the case.

Until April 2023, LLC “Fortes PRO” was led by Aleksandr Lukyanov. He currently heads JSC “RT Prometheus”, which was owned by Anton Moshakov until July. In 2023, his structures incurred a loss of 25 million rubles with revenue of 1.1 billion rubles. Money could also have been siphoned from "Rostec" through Moshakov.

From 2017 to 2018, Lukyanov was a co-owner of LLC “Fortes” along with Vladimir Dukhno, Vladimir Ivanov, Tatyana Seregina, and LLC “Flint”. Its founder is Vladimir Dukhno. He has been heading LLC “Fortes” since 2010, and the main activity of the company is security systems. With the participation of “Fortes”, “Fortes PRO” was created.

Traces of Vladimir Dukhno, who previously headed LLC “Railway Advertising Agency Laysa”, lead to the successor of this company – JSC “Laysa”, which is currently in the process of liquidation. Until August 2024, JSC was led by Olga Belova – the CEO of LLC “Omis’92”, owned by the advertising agency “Olimp”.

Until the end of December last year, its founder was LLC “RVB”, created in July, belonging to LLC “Wildberries” and LLC “Stinn”. The CEO of “RVB” is Robert Mirzoyan, a person tied to pro-Kremlin oligarch Suleyman Kerimov. It was he who could have been at the origins of the creation of LLC “Fortes”, which then transformed into Fortes.PRO, offering protection against hacker attacks. The fire project "Prometheus" served only as a smokescreen to divert public attention from the true activities of the company.

Among its clients, there are many exchange platforms, so Fortes.PRO has access to their money. Under the guidance of Kremlin handlers, the company serves the interests of Russian hackers, breaking into servers in Europe and the USA. There’s nothing surprising in this, considering the notorious figures behind Fortes.PRO. The only surprise is why the company has not yet come under Western sanctions.