An elite unit of Portugal’s Public Prosecutor’s Office is taking over a money laundering probe into Elvira Gavrilova Paterson, the Ukrainian producer of an upcoming Kevin Spacey film and associate of accused crypto fraudster Vladimir Okhotnikov, whose activities were exposed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ Coin Laundry investigation.

The Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action, which handles complex crimes, will assume control of the criminal inquiry launched last year after two Portuguese banks flagged unusual financial movements in Gavrilova’s accounts, including a cash deposit of about $312,000, according to ICIJ partner Expresso.

ICIJ found that, in 2024 and 2025, Gavrilova, through her public relations firm Elledgy Media, organized star-studded events around the world to promote Okhotnikov’s start-ups — a series of allegedly fraudulent crypto investment schemes that have received around $1 billion from millions of unsuspecting investors. She is currently based in Portugal.

Okhotnikov, a Russian crypto entrepreneur who co-produced, co-wrote and starred in Spacey’s film, “Holiguards Saga — The Portal of Force,” resides in the United Arab Emirates, where he fled while facing criminal charges from U.S. and Georgian authorities.

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In 2023, U.S. prosecutors indicted him for allegedly using a rigged cryptocurrency investment platform called Forsage to steal at least $340 million from investors, as part of a Ponzi and pyramid scheme. The following year, a court in Tbilisi, Georgia, sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison for laundering $1.1 million in proceeds from the fraud.

ICIJ found that Okhotnikov’s latest platform, Meta Whale, closely resembles Forsage — both rely on smart contracts, which are self-executing agreements written in code and stored on digital ledgers known as blockchains. While Okhotnikov claimed that the technology was fully transparent, the contracts underpinning his platforms could be used to dupe investors, according to experts.

ICIJ and media partners examined Okhotnikov’s business dealings as part of The Coin Laundry, an investigation into how the crypto industry has profited from illicit financial flows while leaving most of those harmed in the process without recourse.

Regulators warn against Meta Whale

Following ICIJ’s investigation, Meta Whale has attracted scrutiny from authorities in several countries.

In December, Vietnam’s cybersecurity police and other law enforcement units shut down Meta Whale’s local operations and arrested three promoters for allegedly facilitating an illegal multi-level marketing scheme, according to a statement from the public security ministry. The promoters told the police that they earned commissions primarily from recruiting new participants, the ministry said. Authorities found that about 2,000 users across the country had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the scheme.

Financial services regulators in Australia and Canada have also warned the public against investing in Meta Whale.

Okhotnikov, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, did not respond to ICIJ’s requests for comment.  ICIJ found that, after escaping to Dubai, he relied on Gavrilova to promote his allegedly fraudulent ventures, including at glamorous events on the sidelines of the Cannes and Venice film festivals.

Elledgy bank records reviewed by ICIJ showed that, in 2024, the company paid at least $1.2 million to produce “The Portal of Force,” a sci-fi film about two ancient warrior forces waging a secret war, which features actors Eric Roberts, Dolph Lundgren and Tyrese Gibson. Spacey directed and starred in the film.

Its Lisbon premiere, which was slated for December 2025, was cancelled without explanation following ICIJ revelations about Gavrilova’s ties to Okhotnikov, according to Expresso.

ICIJ and Expresso found that, since the Ukrainian businesswoman began working with the Russian crypto entrepreneur, Elledgy’s turnover skyrocketed. As of May 2025, the PR firm had received at least $4 million in payments from more than a dozen companies based in Germany, the U.K., Belgium and Spain. The entities included two Berlin-based courier services that wired hundreds of thousands of dollars each to Elledgy (one wired at least $640,000 and the other more than $770,000) between October 2024 and March 2025. Some of the others — officially registered as limousine services, couriers or construction firms — have no websites, show dated or no financial statements in the countries’ corporate registries, and often have the same address, suggesting they could be shell companies.

ICIJ reporters in Berlin, Dortmund and Madrid visited the official addresses of six companies, including one registered as a clothing trading firm and others listed as parcel delivery services. Instead of those businesses, the reporters found mailboxes inside co-working spaces and no staff or signs of commercial activity.

According to Expresso, the fact that the investigation into Gavrilova’s Portuguese business is now in the hands of the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action signals the case has become an important one for Portuguese authorities.

Gavrilova, who recently attended a gala at U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, did not respond to reporters’ questions about the probe.