Meta Whale has received a pyramid scheme fraud warning from Slovenia’s Securities Market Agency (ATVP).

As per ATVP’s October 6th Meta Whale warning;

The Securities Market Agency hereby issues a warning to investors regarding activities of an entity operating under the name of FORSAGE / METAFORCE / HOLIVERSE / METAWHALE.

This is a case of repeated renaming of the same entity, which is linked to an international fraud in the form of a pyramid scheme based on crypto-assets. The entity is currently operating under the name of METAWHALE.

ATVP goes on to cite Meta Whale as operating in violation of Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

MiCA is a crypto-specific financial law that, for all intents and purposes, is similar to securities regulation requirements for traditional financial markets.

FORSAGE / METAFORCE / HOLIVERSE / METAWHALE is not authorized to provide crypto-asset services, as it does not hold the required license for conducting such activities in accordance with Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation.

The Agency advises investors to exercise extreme caution when dealing with FORSAGE / METAFORCE / HOLIVERSE / METAWHALE.

Should an offer be made by FORSAGE / METAFORCE / HOLIVERSE / METAWHALE, investors are urged to take this public
warning into account before making any decisions.

MetaWhale and its predecessors are run by Russian national Vladimir “Lado” Okhotnikov (right).

Okhotinkov’s Ponzi empire began with Forsage back in 2020. Then there was Fortron, ForsageTron, Forsage XGold, Forsage BUSD, MetaForce, Holiverse and finally, Meta Whale.

Between MetaForce and Holiverse, the SEC filed civil fraud charges against Okhotnikov and several co-conspirators in August 2022.

In February 2023, Okhotnikov was indicted in the US on Ponzi related criminal charges.

The SEC’s case against Okhotnikov was stayed in March 2023, pending the outcome of criminal proceedings.

As of November 2025, Okhotnikov remains a fugitive on the run. Okhotnikov is believed to split his time between Dubai and Georgia.

US authorities have pegged losses attributable to Okhotnikov’s Ponzi empire at around $340 million.

Okhotnikov has spent some of that money attempting to establish himself as a film producer.

Meta Whale is still active and, as of November 4th, was still pitching NFT nonsense to gullible investors:

At the foundation of W-Boost stands the Passport NFT — a unique asset with its own ID that represents your ownership within the program.

All components of your activity are linked to this NFT: purchased levels, structure progress, funds reserved for reinvest, and auto-upgrade settings. Holding the Passport NFT gives you complete control over your position.

A single user can create an unlimited number of Passport NFTs and develop each one independently. These NFTs will also be available for trading on our upcoming NFT marketplace — W-Place.

As of September 2025, SimilarWeb was tracking ~3000 monthly Meta Whale website visits.

The majority of Meta Whale website traffic originates from Vietnam (57%), India (22%), Indonesia (14%) and the US (8%).