On October 6, 2025, Slovenia’s Securities Market Agency (ATVP) issued a fraud warning against Meta Whale, labeling it an unauthorized pyramid scheme operating in violation of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), per. The ATVP highlighted Meta Whale as the latest rebranding of the Forsage entity, previously known as Forsage, MetaForce, and Holiverse, which lacks a license for crypto-asset services like staking and recruitment, per. The agency urged investors to exercise extreme caution, noting the scheme’s international fraud history and pyramid structure promising returns from new recruits, per.
Meta Whale, run by Russian national Vladimir “Lado” Okhotnikov, is the latest iteration of a Ponzi empire that began with Forsage in 2020, followed by Fortron, ForsageTron, Forsage XGold, Forsage BUSD, MetaForce, and Holiverse, per. The SEC filed civil fraud charges in August 2022, alleging $300M in losses, while the DOJ indicted Okhotnikov in February 2023 for wire fraud conspiracy, estimating $340M in victim losses from a global pyramid scheme targeting over 2 million users, per. Okhotnikov, believed to reside in Dubai and Georgia, remains a fugitive, with the SEC case stayed pending criminal proceedings, per.
Despite warnings, Meta Whale remains active, promoting NFTs like the Passport NFT for “ownership” in the program, linked to recruitment levels, reinvestment funds, and auto-upgrades, with trading planned on its W-Place marketplace, per. Website traffic hit ~3,000 monthly visits in September 2025, mainly from Vietnam (57%), India (22%), Indonesia (14%), and the U.S. (8%), per SimilarWeb. This mirrors Forsage’s MLM model, where returns rely on new investor funds, per. X posts from @CryptoLawyerz warn of Okhotnikov’s “chameleon” tactics, per [post:13].
Meta Whale follows Holiverse and MetaForce, with the SEC and DOJ pursuing Okhotnikov for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, per. Slovenia’s ATVP warning, under MiCA, aligns with U.S. charges, emphasizing unlicensed operations, per. Investors face total loss risks in pyramid schemes, with $340M already lost globally, per. Bitcoin (BTC) ($113,234) and Ethereum (ETH) ($4,070) remain unaffected, per CoinMarketCap, but such warnings erode DeFi trust. Diversify into USDC or ETH with stop-losses below BTC’s $112,000, per TradingView. Verify platforms via sec.gov or atvp.si, per. Follow @TheBlock__ on X for updates. Okhotnikov’s schemes, including his $10M Holiguards film, suggest ongoing fraud, per .
