While gambling is strictly prohibited in Dubai, a large number of crypto scammers are continuing to land in the city with bundles of scam projects, including crypto scams, MLM (Multi-Level Marketing), Ponzi schemes, and gambling/gaming/betting while several UAE newspapers such as the Gulf News, Arabian Business have no shame in promoting such scammers by publishing lengthy promotional/sponsored posts.
It may be mentioned here that, Islam is the official religion of the country, pursuant to the Constitution of the UAE. As gambling is prohibited in Islam, this forms the basis for the federal and local emirate laws that prohibit all forms of gambling, as well as the advertising of any form of gaming.
Meaning, that for any Emirati newspaper running a sponsored or paid promotional post in favor of anyone running gambling, gaming, or betting site is tantamount to legal consequences. But the unfortunate fact is, that these newspapers are continuing to violate Emirati laws while Dubai is already becoming a hub of scammers, frauds, and criminals.
READ: Dubai becomes a prime target of scammers and frauds
Meet Ilman Shazhaev, a 29-years-old Muslim from Chechnya, who runs an online casino/gaming site named ‘Farcana’ with an office at Downtown Dubai, Saaha Office C, Office 405, 4 floor, Dubai, Dubai, UAE, and this company allows its subscribers to gamble online by using cryptocurrency. On its LinkedIn profile of Farcana, this company has clearly mentioned itself as a “Blockchain Services”, meaning, it is directly involved in the crypto sector. It also claims to have 51-200 employees, although there is no evidence of any employee in this sham project except for its owner.
According to sponsored post in the Gulf News (gulfnews.com), Arabian Business (arabianbusiness.com), and other sites, Ilman Shazhaev, who is a resident of the United Arab Emirates is a “multitasking techpreneur” who was “born and raised in the Russian republic of Chechnya, came to Dubai just three years ago before the pandemic-induced lockdown began”.
It may be mentioned here that, Chechen Muslim Ilman Shazhaev’s company Farcana does not have any office in China, Malaysia, and Russia despite his claim of having businesses in those countries. It may also be mentioned here that, gambling is strictly prohibited in China and Malaysia.
In the sponsored post, Ilman Shazhaev of Farcana is quoted saying: “When I moved here, I had already started companies in China, Malaysia, and Russia and had to run and manage my businesses remotely from Dubai”.
Following his arrival in Dubai, Ilman Shazhaev found the country most convenient for running an online casino, gaming, and betting businesses as local Emirati newspapers such as the Gulf News are enthusiastically and continuously promoting such illegal activities simply in exchange for substantial financial benefit.
READ: Millions of cryptocurrency investors are being scammed
So within just two months after his arrival, he set up a health tech company to provide services in the healthcare sector. As the UAE economy bounced back post-pandemic, so did Shazhaev. This year in January, he launched Farcana, a blockchain-based gaming metaverse in Dubai.
Ilman Shazhaev in his sponsored “interview” said: “My work schedule is often overloaded, but the results inspire me“, which again proves, being in Dubai he finds it the most convenient place to run his activities.
According to the Gulf News and Arabian Business, Ilman Shazhaev “spent nine years at universities and combined studies”, while he is quoted saying: “I earned my Bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering at the Moscow State Technical University and my MS in engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology in China. I then started my Ph.D. program at Shanghai Jiao Tong University”.
According to a credible source, communist parties of some countries are grooming individuals like Ilman in the IT sector and later engaging them in online casino and betting businesses wherefrom accrued profits are secretly transferred to some communist party leaders and the parties.
He also said: “In my first university, I was soon promoted from a lab technician to an engineer and engaged in various projects for private companies and the government. This experience taught me to build connections between science and business, and I succeeded in winning several public grants”.
According to the sponsored post, back in 2017, Ilman Shazhaev “set up OneBoost – a digital asset management company that supplied mining equipment and built data centers in China; then expanded it to other markets and opened branches in Malaysia and Russia”.
READ: South Koreans arrested in Thailand for running an online gambling site
A careful study of the above-mentioned report shall evidently prove – Ilman Shazhaev’s company Farcana is luring people, including children to make money through video gaming. Meaning, that it is clearly a gambling site, which according to Emirati law is a forbidden and punishable offense.
According to our information, the Gulf News and a few other Emirati newspapers, especially Gulf News are continuously promoting online gambling and betting sites in exchange for financial gain. We are retaining evidence against our claims and shall be able to provide such crucial evidence to the relevel authorities in the United Arab Emirates if they at all are interested in taking legal action against those Emirati newspapers and operators of online casinos, gambling, and betting sites.
Also, the Australian parliament investigates video game gambling. Earlier, following the publication of a series of exclusive investigative reports in Blitz, fraud kingpins Kamil Grunt, Jorge Sebastiao and their cohorts started hiding information on the fraudulent ‘EcoShumi Foundation’ (Web Archive Link) website by deleting photographs and information they had earlier provided, although all such information still are available on the archive of this fraud project.
