US trade regulator accuses billion dollar Ukrainian IT giant of fraud
on Google
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit on June 17 against one of Ukraine’s largest IT firms for allegedly defrauding its customers through "deceptive subscription schemes."
A federal court has temporarily halted the operations of 15 corporations and eight individuals under the Kyiv-based firm Genesis Tech, which the FTC said in a public statement deceived consumers with hidden costs, recurring charges, and convoluted mechanisms to cancel subscriptions.
The FTC claims that Genesis Tech controls a network of entities registered in Cyprus that operate in Ukraine and access U.S. payment platforms through entities registered in Delaware.
To avoid fraud monitoring programs, Genesis Tech and its affiliate firms continually register new companies, open new bank accounts, and produce new products, the FTC said.
"The result is an ever-evolving web of Cyprus and Delaware shell companies that allows Genesis Tech and its subsidiaries to continue defrauding U.S. consumers and routing their ill-gotten gains overseas," the FTC wrote in the public statement on its website.
"Together, Genesis Tech and its subsidiaries are able to hide their true identities from consumers and attempt to hide their assets by channeling ill-gotten gains through cross-border transfers among corporate affiliates."
The company and its co-founder and CEO Volodymyr Mnoholetniy and co-founder Vasily Ulyanov created dozens of deliberately deceptive products and packages, according to the FTC complaint.
Among them are fitness and nutrition apps MadMuscles, Harna and Unimeal; the productivity app Wisey; PDF editors PDF Guru and PDF Master; the fashion styling app Lumi; and the horoscope platform Nebula. According to the FTC, these products generated about $250 million in revenue from early 2023 to mid-2025.
Founded in 2008, Genesis Tech has its office in a hip Kyiv neighborhood and was seen as one of the rising stars in Ukraine’s burgeoning IT sector, inking partnerships with Google and Facebook.
It attracted investment from major backers like Horizon Capital and became one of the few Ukrainian tech firms to cross the $1 billion valuation mark. More than 25 companies are under the Genesis Tech ecosystem, with over 1 billion downloads across all its products and tens of millions of monthly users, according to the firm.
The tech company also helped found other major Ukrainian startups, BetterMe — a health and fitness app — and Headway, an educational technology app.
The company has not publicly commented on the accusations. The Kyiv Independent reached out to Genesis Tech for their response to the claims, but did not hear back by time of publication.
