Valentin Dobrovolsky
To invest your hard-earned money, to get bonuses and to relax on the beach with a tasty tropical cocktail – it is either a frame from a movie or an understanding of a beautiful life.
A lot of people wish to invest and to forget about work. As investment experts like to say – the money are supposed to work for you. Valentin Evgenievich Dobrovolsky was using this principle very well and launched his own financial pyramid.
It was called the MHost data-center (DC). According to the forum ads, DC was offering the server hosting services and equipment colocation all over the Ukraine territory and beyond.
Dobrovolsky was promising greatest solutions, affordable prices, flexible prices and, of course, top quality.
The address was 03150, Kiev, Krasnoarmeiskaya 124 str., MHost. His website - http://www.mhost.kiev.ua was actively working and information about all the investment possibilities was posted there. From time to time, Valentin was even demonstrating payment charts to his investors and lenders in order to satisfy their ego.
To impress with the scale means to attract even more money. This is why Valentin was later describing that the data-center will be launched in line with the 4th category standards and that it will work in line with this category. The launch date was 01.12.2010. This decision was made after nearly a year of checking and regular fixing all the found issues. Dobrovolsky was effectively using words like “expensive brand equipment”, “availability of pleasant services”, “top quality channels with many operators and countries” as well as even “individual approach”. He is actively receiving investments into the data-center and at the same time get loans. The reasons vary – from investing into MHost and up to day to day problems.
Dobrovolsky’s offer was genuinely attractive – investments under 5-10% every month with a 100% guarantee. He had a real and stable business and there were no doubt for the time being.
According to the conditions, the amount of investments varied from $500 - $50 000.
The interest rates varied just as they should in line with the investment logic:
- $500-1000 – 5% every month. The interest payments are possible every month. The main sum is being received for at least a month and at most for a term of 6 months.
- $1000-5000 – 8% every month. The interest payments are possible every month. The main sum is being received for at least a month and at most for a term of 6 months.
- $5000-50 000 – 10% every month. The interest payments are possible every month. The main sum is being received for at least a month and at most for a term of 6 months.
People were considering the conditions, realized actual profit, but never thought that prior to investing it would be wise to at least Google a bit in order to find more info on the person. Everyone only seen a real working business and this is why they invested into the MHost. If Dobrovolsky was asking for a loan, he was never rejected – businessman always needs the money, so why not help him. Everything in this situation looked and felt normal, logical and lucrative.
This is why, when on October 24th 2010 on the Webmoney forum a topic regarding Dobrovolsky loan accounts appears, everyone view the given questions with suspicion. The user, who knows about financial pyramids and Putinzev’s activities, asks to pay attention to the Dobrovolsky delta. Obviously, people who invested money, are quick to protect their “beneficiary”. But there are people who are asking the right questions and Valentin does not answer those.
Payment problems begin, but people still believe in Dobrovolsky. Many are prepared to wait for weeks in order to get their money.
Valentin is acting quite aggressively. His main arguments were – “take it or leave it”, “I am not obligated to act every month”, “I am not forcing you to work with me” and even “every person makes his own decisions”.
Subsequently, a very logical question appeared: you do not want to demonstrate the most important things, you are taking loans for certain purpose, but do not want to confirm it, so how are you using the money you received from lenders?
But Valentin was used to his “don’t want to”, “I won’t”. Even though people were demanding answers from him, actual answers to actual questions, he continued to disappear.
When people were asking him to calculate the overall sum of debt, he was elegantly answering by asking them to “count your own money and not ours”. He was using the usual scheme and acted aggressively, using phrases like: “if you consider that our project is unreliable, we advise you to switch your debtor”.
Because of not paying for their obligations, MHost became a company with a huge amount of debt. But Dobrovolsky was still attempting to get out of this situation – he was not taking 14 days loans, did not raise the percentage, actively exploited lenders’ reviews – those people were allegedly at the very heart of the data-center. Valentin return loans to the people, who were the most skeptical about him. He also started actively working on dealing with the WMID block on the part of the service. He even managed to succeed.
But on December 14th 2010 Webmoney is introducing limitations on the overall amount of debt and it deprives MHost from the right to attract any finances. Afterwards, he was still trying to post an add on MMGP.RU, but the process was already irreversible – people did not believe him anymore.
When the question of getting a pledge from the bank was raised, he said that the equipment is worth 30-40% at best, so he will not want to get a loan under these conditions. In truth, it was very profitable – 3% every month instead of 10-15% every month that he promised to pay to his employer.
This is when the suspicion is raising: the bank is usually reluctant to provide loans while pledging the equipment that is not in its property. It turns out that 500 000 rubles he owed for the MHost equipment and should he pay his debts, he will lose it all at any moment.
Another side of the coin. When the borrower is coming to the bank, he is asked to come with a ton of paperwork – bookkeeping reports and forms for the last year and that is the very least. After giving the loan, the banks will demand quarterly reports and will check the transfers of account turnover of the borrower in the bank. Also, the contract mentions that the borrower does not have the right to get a loan in another bank until he will not pay the first one. And now just imagine that the borrower declares publically that he is not going to demonstrate and account transfers. What are they going to do to him? That is right – they will send him away and put him in the blacklist. This is why it is obvious that Dobrovolsky is not going to the banks – all of his wrongdoings will become apparent right there and then.
He is actually a risky guy – these debts are too small for him – he also gets 1000-2000 WMZ from his clients, partners, gets loans and direct credits from VIP-credits, bypassing the existing mechanism of loan giving.
At the same time, yet another great VIP-datacenter appears in Ukraine. It is owned by a company from Lvov that considers it theirs. The only weird thing is – they have the same address: the one from Kiev. A ton of questions appears – who is in truth the owner of this data-center? Dobrovolsky claims through one of the forums that it is his data-center. But why then the western investor from Lvov has another opinion?
His fighting spirit is a bit underwhelmed during August 2011, when the regional Goloseev court in Kiev decides to confiscate any and all server equipment in order to pay for Dobrovolsky debts. After carrying out the decision, it was planned that payments will be made - $635 582, 30 to cover the debt. MHost did not comment the situation – any attempts on calling the service were unsuccessful.
A lot of people thought that Dobrovolsky will deal with those issues. His loud claims on the forums (including the Webmoney ones) as well as small individual payments were reasons enough for them.
But when on October 22, 2011, approximatively at 7pm the access to all the equipment was lost, actual panic began. And how can you get access to the equipment that was already confiscated and taken God knows where?
Company’s phones were not responding, servers were unavailable and now-former employees were all saying that they were not working at MHost for a while now. According to their version, Dobrovolsky fired them through ICQ messages. Considering the nature as well as fraudulent actions, one must not be surprised with such an immoral act.
The MHost.ua website also stopped working – all domain names of the company were transferred to free DNS-servers and were pointing out a fake IP-address – 127.0.0.1.
Unfortunately, some of the servers from the collocation were not returned to their owners at all. If it was not for the Arbitrary of the Webmoney system and Dmitriy Kamenskiy’s actions, Dobrovolsky would flourish to this day.
This story has an astounding moral value. The MHost data-center was considered “one of the largest data-centers in Ukraine that was servicing more than 10 000 companies and their websites as well as individuals”. It would seem that the reputation is great and image of the company is great as well, so why not invest your hard-earned money into a developing business? Or why not lend some money to the businessman – he is such a great guy!
But you need to face the facts. Ukraine knew the name of Valentin Dobrovolsky long before the MHost – it was often appearing, when people were talking about financial pyramids, unpaid loans as well as unreliable businessmen.
The fraudulent nature of Valentin Dobrovolsky was actively showing itself even before the launch of MHost. As the director of the HostBizUa (hostbizua.com) company that he later sold, on August 2006 hired Aliona Kozdoba from Donetsk as the JSP programmer. He promised a nice payment - $800 as well as bonuses. He even agreed to wait until she will return from her leave. He asked for scans of her ID in order to get a credit card for her salary, so he could send it to his new employee.
When Aliona got back from her leave, she starting working right away – her work was also complicated by the lack of source codes. Dobrovolsky was not just patient – he also promised her more bonuses, praised her, invited her to move to Kiev in order to work in the HostBizUa.
But when September was over and the time has come to get her salary along with all the bonuses, something truly extraordinary began to manifest. The credit card could not reach Aliona. The letter was lost, there was no such address for some reason and even the courier along with his plane was lost. Once Aliona got back home from the airport without the credit car, she turned on the computer and tried to access the server, but it turned out that the access was forbidden. Dobrovolsky continued to respond to he calls and her letters and promised that she will get the money.
Once she did not get the money, Aliona decided to Google a bit and to read about her unreliable employer. It turned out that back in 2004 Valentin stole a popular forum from one person and a banner from another. This is when it became apparent that Dobrovolsky is a thief, a fraud and a liar.
This is not the first and not the lost time when Dobrovolsky is showing his true identity. From his former employer he received $42883,71 in November-December 2009. The reasons varied – there was a need for recrediting in order to keep the Keeper open and running and then there was the need to pay taxes through non-cash operations and even for mother’s surgery.
In March 2010 a comparison of debts was performed and the businessman asked him to return the money. This is when new stories and promises “to return the loan tomorrow” begin. There were plenty of reasons – he will get a new loan, he almost managed to get it and so on. As an “honest” borrower, Dobrovolsky promised to pay 5-10% of the sum every month. But the money along with all the interest did not go anywhere from Valentin’s pockets.
Dobrovolsky was always creative when it came to getting the money without any efforts. Former employer tells that Valentin indicated that the spare parts and the equipment for the servers were bought from the “Everest” company. To be fair, the guys were actually selling their equipment for elevated prices, but their quality was great and the assortment vast. Dobrovolsky was writing checks – for example, for changing the server, paid for those services and it appeared to be fine. But when the truth came out and all the paperwork was studied it turned out that he was making other purchases instead of the servers. For example, an expensive part for his car. Or an iPhone for himself. Or even a cool gaming console.
There were plenty of different unpleasant surprises, but the epic fail was tremendous. Dobrovolsky posts an add that he needs a loan in order to get 120 servers for his client asap. By that time, his employer had the very same order for 50 servers. When the servers are being purchased with cash, the supplier gives a great discount, so 50 servers can be bought with $50 000. These money were given, but when the time came to make the current payments, a delay appeared. The moment coincided with the very peak of the crisis and dollar rises from 4.8 to 6. Consequently, instead of 50 or even 120 servers with such setting, you should be buying a blade-server with central controls. According to the specialists, back then it was a logical and profitable solution. But Valentin of course knows better and the purchasing process is quite active.
When the very first doubts began to appear, the employer asked him to make a photo of the servers he bought. Dobrovolsky is easily sending some nice pictures. However, that cupboard with the very same servers with blue lights is owned by another client of the data-center. He simply made photos of a cupboard from a neighboring zone.
The theft was uncovered once the director uploaded those photos into the data-center and received an answer that it not their equipment at all. Therefore, aside from excellent imagination, Valentin Dobrovolsky could also work as a photographer.
The moral of the story is quite straightforward: you need to gather as much info as possible prior to investing, otherwise you risk losing all the money. Google will never let you down and will provide you with reviews on any person. If you are in doubts, I is best to keep the money. Because even the largest data-center could turn out being a fraud, just because its director loves the money too much to be honest.
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