Holiguards is slated for release in December 2025. Director Kevin Spacey will also star in the movie, alongside Eric Roberts, Dolph Lundgren, Tyrese Gibson, Brianna Hildebrand and Disha Patani.

Over on IMDB, Lado Okhotnikov is credited as one of Holiguards two writers. Okhotnikov apparently also has a role in film:

The problem?

Vladimir “Lado” Okhotnikov is wanted by US authorities on criminal charges related to his Forsage Ponzi schemes.

As revealed in Okhotnikov’s 2023 indictment, the DOJ has pegged Forsage victim losses at over $340 million. Parallel SEC civil fraud proceedings claim a more modest $300 million in losses.

Exactly how much of that Okhotnikov (right) personally stole is unknown. But it appears to be a lot.

Forsage was a five-times rebooted Ponzi, the last same-name iteration of which was launched and collapsed in 2021.

After the fifth reboot came Meta Force in July 2022. The SEC filed suit against Okhotnikov and several accomplices a month later in August 2022.

Meta Force collapsed via disabled withdrawals the following month in September 2022. Okhotnikov’s indictment on wire fraud charges was made public in February 2023.

Okhotnikov, originally from Kazakhstan but currently hiding out in Georgia and Dubai, continued string investors along. In October 2024 Okhotnikov rebooted Meta Force as Holiverse, which we’ll circle back around to in a bit.

As an MLM crypto Ponzi, Holiverse went nowhere and was replaced by Meta Whale in May 2025. Meta Whale appears to have been all but abandoned, which brings us to the Holiguards movie.

As far as I can tell, Holiguards is a “levelling up” of the comically bad “productions” Okhotnikov routinely uploaded to the Forsage/Meta Force/Meta Whale YouTube channel.

I’d share a few examples but around the time Meta Whale was announced, Okhotnikov deleted everything prior to May 2025 from the channel.

What I can tell you is the productions were all of similar nature. Okhotnikov was the main character with superpowers and was on a mission to save Earth from an unknown entity.

An eastern European take on The Matrix, if you will. Except that instead of fighting robots to save humanity, “something something invest in my MLM crypto scam”.

(Note the screenshots above are from BehindMLM’s previous reporting. Okhotnikov has since deleted the videos the screenshots were taken from.)

It’s not quite the same as the really bad videos but here’s a taste of something similar; a “metaverse” marketing video from a year ago on Okhotnikov’s personal Youtube channel.

Typical cringe stuff from a fugitive on the run with tons of stolen funds at hand, desperate for public validation. I can only assume Okhotnikov nuked past videos due to embarrassment.

It’s one thing to impress desperate Ponzi victims. If you’re going to go for validation through an actual professional production, you don’t want industry people trawling your cringe fantasy slop.

Holiguards is an expansion of the “metaverse” backstory Okhotnikov came up with to shill Holiverse, which itself was a recycling of “metaverse” marketing used to dupe Forsage and Meta Force victims.

Now that you’ve got the backstory, here’s Holiguards’ official plot summary;

In a divided future, ancient Holiguards and Statiguards fight secretly for humanity. A woman discovers she’s born to rival leaders as a Statiguard plans to attack Paris and unleash the Prime.

Variety provides a more detailed plot synopsis;

“Holiguards” is set against the backdrop of a near-future world fractured by hidden supernatural forces, where two ancient warrior factions — the Holiguards and the Statiguards — wage a secret war for control of humanity’s fate.

Amid this conflict, a young woman discovers that she’s the daughter of two rival leaders and could end the conflict.

Meanwhile, a Statiguard strategist prepares a catastrophic attack in Paris using a nuclear device and an army of mind-controlled civilians, channeling energy from a cosmic portal to awaken an ancient force known as the Prime.

“Statiguards vs. Holiguards” is the first film, with followups planned as part of a cinematic universe.

Okhotnikov is confirmed as a Holiguards cast member but his role hasn’t been disclosed.

And this is where things, at least as far as BehindMLM’s interest in Okhotnikov goes, get interesting.

Who is funding Holiguards is unknown but, again courtesy of Variety, we do know this;

The film, which has a budget of around $10 million, shot in Mexico last year and is now in post-production. Elledgy Media Group produces “Holiguards” alongside Lado Film.

That Okhotnikov is involved not only as a writer but as an actor, when he has no known industry experience as either, raises serious concerns.

In fact the only connection I can come up with that links Okhotnikov to “the industry” is money. I mean let’s face it, ten million out of a $300 million plus haul isn’t much.

In addition to Lado Film, we have Okhotnikov citing Holiguards as a “Lado Film” on social media:

Two weeks ago Okhotnikov uploaded a staged interview, in which he stated “filmmaking has always been my aspiration”.

So to tie all of this together; we have a fugitive wanted on criminal charges, whose also a primary defendant in an SEC civil fraud case (on hold pending Okhotnikov’s arrest and conclusion of his criminal case), likely laundering stolen Forsage Ponzi victim funds through Lado Film, to fund a $10 million movie directed by and starring several well-known actors.

Holiverse held a movie trailer premier back in February. The event was purportedly split simultaneously between Dubai and France.

In May 2025 the Holiguards trailer was debuted at the Cannes Film Festival:

As far as I know the trailer hasn’t been made public.

Will a movie production written and starring a wanted fugitive that is also likely funded by Forsage Ponzi victim funds go ahead?

No idea. Watch this space.