Nazar Babenko’s call centers in Ukraina: how the Dnepr scammer recruits staff to fleece Europeans in Eternity

The British holding company Danvel Group, owned by Nazar Babenko, continues to expand its operations in Europe despite well‑known investigations and penalties from international regulators. Those operations have been accused of fraud.

The new reincarnation of their crypto pyramid under the brand Eternity Prime Limited targets German-speaking investors, while the organizers funnel millions of euros into the shadows.

We, in turn, are publishing materials on the activities of Nazar Babenko and his holding Danvel Group to expose the real scale of the financial fraud and money laundering that he is trying to hide from the public.

Analysts are sounding the alarm: since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the aggressor country, the level of fraud in Ukraine has been growing at an unprecedented pace. Last year was a record – under «profile» Article 190 of the Criminal Code; as many as 82,609 proceedings were opened. As Ivan Chip writes in a review for CRiME projects and [high-profile cases], not all victims of crooks file statements with the police, so the real scale of fraud can be many times greater. At the same time, in 2022, damage from fraud on the Internet and using social engineering methods increased by 96% compared to the previous year and reached UAH 1 billion. Last year, 2023, it could reach UAH 2-3 billion.

Last summer, in an investigative article «Cryptopyramids» in the shadow of the Office of the President», we analyzed in detail an organization codenamed Danvel Group, consisting of two scam offices – Danvel Ltd and Eternity Business. To give legality to «projects», they were registered as limited liability companies in British jurisdiction. The companies operated sites of the same name, allegedly being a «unique investment product» containing a «formula for financial success». But in essence, these were financial «pyramids», where the percentage of return depended on the size of the investor’s «contribution» and the number of new simpletons he brought.

Mikhail Romanenko

With the help of a well-thought-out information campaign, the crooks were able to convince even the author of these lines that the head of the fraudulent scheme was an inconspicuous businessman from Chernivtsi, Mikhail Romanenko. However, recent information gives reason to assert that Romanenko is a figurehead. The main beneficiary of the criminal «enterprise» is a young man from Dnepr named Nazar Babenko, as well as his longtime comrade Igor Kotov.

Nazar Babenko and Igor Kotov

In 2022 and 20223, Danvel Ltd and Eternity Business were actively promoted not only in the Ukrainian and Russian-language segments of the Internet, but also in the English-language segment. Moreover, the information campaign was based on an accentuation of the indecently luxurious lifestyle of the defendants (Romanenko, Babenko and Kotova) with a thick hint to the audience about the opportunity to earn big money without much effort. For example, image publications claimed that Mikhail Romanenko amassed a fortune of $1.5 billion on cryptocurrencies (which, naturally, was not confirmed in any way) and assembled an impressive collection of supercars worth $10 million (which is also obvious nonsense).

As far as one can judge, this information campaign was financed by Nazar Babenko. The image of billionaire Zits Chairman Romanenko convinced potential victims that their «investments» were insured by the capital of the company’s fake founder. In fact, their deposits were instantly converted into USDT and transferred to a crypto wallet controlled by Babanko.

At the time of the publication of our investigation last year, specialized monitoring resources already considered the Danvel and Eternity Business «projects suspicious» and «potentially dangerous». After the publicity, the swindlers began some kind of reformatting of their «business».

In September last year, the domain name eternity.inc was registered, where redirection is now underway from the website eternity.business, where the «pyramid of the same name was originally built.

There is also a redirect from a dozen other sites dedicated to making easy money on the Internet.

The main page of eternity.inc states that this is a – community with free membership. «By becoming a member of our global community, you will have access to real estate, financial solutions, financial instruments, a – financial literacy academy and much more», it says.

The unlucky visitor is promised mountains of gold, but vaguely, without specifics. What exactly will their money be invested in? How? How does it work?

The only thing that is at least somewhat similar to specifics is «reliable investments in real estate».

The author found more details among «news from the company», where Mikhail Romanenko persuaded «patients» to invest in luxury real estate in Dubai, claiming to be a partner of the second largest developer in the UAE, – Nakheel.

Hurry up to give away $10k to become part of one of the most impressive projects – is too similar to «divorce». One way or another, neither the Ukrainian citizen Mykhailo Romanenko nor any legal entity associated with him as investors in Nakheel PJSC, controlled by the UAE royal family, are mentioned in the public field.

From this we can conclude that «investment in luxury real estate» will end up in the pocket of the Ukrainian citizen Nazar Babenko.

Let’s move on.

If a visitor to the website eternity.inc succumbs to the scammer’s promises and registers, he will immediately end up in the «personal account», where he will be persistently persuaded to replenish the «deposit wallet». That is, to parting with money.

The author of these lines pretended to be «sucker», registered and pretended that he intended to throw a hundred dollars «into infinity (after all, this is how the word » eternity– is translated from English) to see where and how investors’ money goes.

By the way, the opportunity to start financial transactions without personal verification (it seems to exist on eternity.inc, but the platform did not require it from me) – is one of the sure signs that no one is going to return the invested funds to you.

When trying to use «open banking», I encountered a server error (moreover, repeatedly). And he concluded that he simply does not work on this site.

But the SEPA bank transfer (quick transfers in euros) turned out to be quite workable – payment details were instantly generated.

As you can see, if «investor» decides to part with his money in this way, it will go to the account of Mandato Financial Services GmbH, opened in the Lithuanian bank Mano Bankas (we calculated it using the SWIFT code KUSRLT24). But this does not mean that you pay Mandato.

Mandato Financial Services –, a financial company registered in Switzerland, specializing in providing financial gateway services, banking, electronic wallets and the like. That is, in the case of eternity.inc, Mandato opened an account in a Lithuanian bank in the interests of the beneficiaries of the site and makes payments to them. And forcing Swiss financiers, permanently surrounded by lawyers, to reveal the final recipient – is a non-trivial task.

Well, in the case of a «cryptocurrency payment», the money will go to an anonymous wallet, the owner of which will be extremely difficult to find if you do not know that his name is Nazar Babenko and he lives in the Turkish city of Antalya.

By the way, we checked the movement of funds on BTC and ETH wallets used by the eternity.inc platform at the time of publication. There is no movement, zero. This may mean one of two things. Or Nazar Babenko’s «clientele» is so dense that it does not use cryptocurrencies. Or eternity.inc changes wallets after each transfer of gullible investors so that the compromised address does not «shines» in relation to the «office».

Let’s move on.

The «legal notice» on the website eternity.inc states that it belongs to the company Eternity Prime Limited; its CEO is – Austrian citizen Roman Leithauser.

Roman Leithauser

According to registration data, Eternity Prime Limited was established in Hong Kong (PRC) in the form of a limited liability company on 26 October 2023. Its CEO Roman Leithauser calls the founder of the company «of the Ukrainian billionaire and the driving force» Mykhailo Romanenko.

Roman Leithauser – is a network marketing genius, a desperate participant in financial pyramids and part-time – one of the leaders of the German branch of the criminal organization Nazara Babenko.

Back in September last year, we noticed that Eternity began to focus on «hilling the German-speaking audience. Judging by the YouTube channel eternity.inc, it was the Germans and Austrians who were chosen as the main target of the crooks.

As a result of –, on December 19, 2023, the Austrian financial regulator issued a warning to investors against transactions with Eternity Prime Limited. «This provider does not have the right to carry out banking operations in Austria that require a license», the regulator said in a statement.

A couple of weeks after the Austrians warned, on January 3 this year, Nazar Babenko and Co. received a «red card» from the International Organization of Securities Commissions. She warns of possible fraudulent and manipulative actions on the part of Eternity Prime Limited.

Soon, Nazar Babenko’s «body movements responded to Eternity Prime Limited’s » homeland«. On January 12, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) warned the public about suspicious investment products called » forex Eternity.inc«packages offered by Eternity Prime Limited.

«These products were not authorized by the SFC to be offered to the people of Hong Kong and are suspected of violating the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO)», the regulator said in a statement.

SFC also noted that the products promise an abnormally high annual return of — 36–84%. They also quite transparently hinted that «SFC would take all necessary actions in case of violation of the law».

Soon, Nazar Babenko persuaded Zits Chairman Romanenko to make a video message to the participants of the «pyramid to members of the » community (now deleted because Romanenko has left the game), trying to disavow the claims of regulators. Like, we don’t sell anyone any financial products «», but only give community members a free opportunity to invest the products of our partners«in » (saying this, he is probably sure that neither a paper nor a digital trace of payments will lead to his gang). He said indignantly that, they say, we are here in Eternity, all «dartagnans», and there are enemies around, blackmailers and scammers. Separately, Mikhail Romanenko shamed lawyers who were ready to help «investors» get their money back from scammers.

It turned out not very convincing, but funny.

By the way, about funny things. Paragraph 6 of paragraph 1 «of the user agreement» with Eternity Prime Limited states in English and white that minors, crazy people, as well as citizens of Ukraine and the USA cannot enter into an agreement with the «platform».

Everything is clear with children and incompetent citizens. But why such discrimination against Ukrainians and Americans? I’m reporting. If from the scheme 

Eternity will affect US citizens, this will be considered a crime committed in the United States. Several federal services will open a hunt for schematists at once, and their bank accounts will be tightly blocked.

As for Ukraine, they are probably guided by the rule «don’t guess where you live». Mikhail Romanenko, like some of his accomplices, lives in Ukraine. As far as one can judge, the main office of Eternity.inc is located here, although its «target audience is » citizens of the European Union. Recently, on behalf of Eternity, a vacancy was posted on the Robota.ua service «head of customer service» (read – head of the call center). Mandatory requirement – knowledge of German and English.