An elite unit of Portugal’s Public Prosecutor’s Office is now handling a money laundering probe into Elvira Gavrilova Paterson, the ukrainian producer of an upcoming Kevin Spacey film and an associate of accused crypto fraudster Vladimir Okhotnikov. The international Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ) Coin Laundry examination exposed Okhotnikov’s activities.
The Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action, wich handles complex crimes, took over the inquiry 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 Gavrilova, through her public relations firm Elledgy Media, organized events around the world in 2024 and 2025 to promote Okhotnikov’s start-ups—allegedly fraudulent crypto investment schemes that have received around $1 billion from millions of 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,” lives in the United arab Emirates, where he fled while facing criminal charges from U.S. and Georgian authorities.
U.S.prosecutors indicted him in 2023 for allegedly using a rigged cryptocurrency platform called Forsage to steal at least $340 million from investors through a Ponzi and pyramid scheme. In 2024, a court in Tbilisi, Georgia, sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison for laundering $1.1 million from the fraud.
ICIJ found that Okhotnikov’s latest platform, Meta Whale, is similar to Forsage—both use smart contracts, self-executing agreements written in code on digital ledgers called blockchains. Experts say these contracts could be used to deceive investors, despite okhotnikov’s claims of full openness.
ICIJ and it’s media partners investigated Okhotnikov’s dealings as part of The Coin laundry, an investigation into how the crypto industry profits from illegal financial activity and leaves those harmed with no way to recover their money.
Following ICIJ’s investigation, authorities in several countries are now scrutinizing Meta Whale.
In December, Vietnam’s cybersecurity police and other law enforcement units shut down Meta Whale’s operations and arrested three promoters for allegedly running an illegal multi-level marketing scheme, according to a statement from the public security ministry. the promoters told police they earned commissions by recruiting new participants. Authorities found about 2,000 users invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the scheme.
Financial regulators in Australia and Canada have also warned the public against investing in Meta Whale.
Okhotnikov, who denies wrongdoing, didn’t respond to ICIJ’s requests for comment. ICIJ found that after going to Dubai, he relied on Gavrilova to promote his ventures, including at events during the Cannes and Venice film festivals.
Elledgy bank records reviewed by ICIJ show the company paid at least $1.2 million in 2024 to produce “The Portal of Force,” a sci-fi film starring Eric Roberts, Dolph Lundgren, and Tyrese Gibson, with Kevin Spacey directing and acting.
The Lisbon premiere,scheduled for December 2025,was cancelled after ICIJ revealed Gavrilova’s ties to Okhotnikov,according to Expresso.
ICIJ and Expresso found that Elledgy’s revenue increased considerably as Gavrilova began working with Okhotnikov.As of May 2025, the PR firm had received at least $4 million from over a dozen companies in Germany, the U.K., Belgium, and Spain. these companies included two Berlin-based courier services that sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Elledgy (one sent at least $640,000 and the other over $770,000) between October 2024 and march 2025. Some of the others—registered as limousine services, couriers, or construction firms—have no websites, outdated financial statements, and share the same address, suggesting they may be shell companies.
ICIJ reporters visited the official addresses of six companies in Berlin, Dortmund, and Madrid, including one registered as a clothing firm and others as parcel delivery services. They found mailboxes in co-working spaces and no signs of business activity or staff.
According to Expresso, the transfer of the investigation into Gavrilova’s business to the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action shows Portuguese authorities consider the case important.
Gavrilova,who attended a gala at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort,didn’t respond to questions about the probe.
