Lotto Billions, an online lottery licensed in Curaçao, has caught the spotlight through recent collaborations with the acclaimed Brazilian footballer Roberto Carlos (even though there is no mention of it on Carlos’ official social media channels or website) and Latin American payment platform Astropay, shirt sponsor of English Premier League team, Wolverhampton Wanderers.
But do these esteemed brands realise who they’re dealing with?
Failing to scrutinise Lotto Billions and its shady leadership could devastate reputations. Just months ago, Ronaldinho was hauled before the Brazilian Parliament to explain his unintentional promotion of a cryptocurrency scam, destroying his personal brand. The 18K Ronaldinho affair saw him go from endorsing Pepsi and Nike to shilling dubious betting sites – a cautionary tale for any star or brand name.
Guilt by association is swift.
Let us examine what lies beneath the shiny surface of Lotto Billions. Highly irregular for a gambling company, Lotto Billions has just one director, one shareholder and no other officially listed executives. The “puppet” frontman, Michiel Van Der Klooster, has been put in place to deceive regulators, banks and payment providers. The real operators probably wouldn’t pass even the most basic due diligence.
The driving force behind the scenes is actually the notorious Nooreddin Valimahomed, who claims to be the company’s Founder and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). He is joined by fellow scammers Khalid Virani and Andrew Collinge as Legal Counsel and Managing Director respectively – but none are officially listed. Valimahomed has also cut in shady Russian associates like Mazhar Jan, self-styled “director” of Lotto Billions despite no official records confirming this, and self-proclaimed co-founder, Edoardo Simone Palaun.
Certain red flags present themselves. Why do none of these so-called founders, owners, and executives appear on any statutory records, either in the UK or Curaçao? Could it be because of their collective history of running disgraced and insolvent companies, along with criminal records and dodgy offshore dealings with Russian business associates?
Elsewhere, Lotto Billions is suspected of running a big Ponzi scheme, where the “guaranteed” jackpots they aggressively promote, appear to be anything but.
With serious questions hanging over both their ability and intention of paying out anyone who does win a jackpot coupled with the sordid history of those who are truly running the company, esteemed brands and personalities may risk becoming the respectable “front” for a gang of business pariahs if Lotto Billions is not thoroughly vetted.
An association with the career conmen behind Lotto Billions could backfire catastrophically.
