John Clifton Davies, a 60-year-old con man from the United Kingdom who fled the nation in 2015 earlier than being sentenced to 12 years in jail for fraud, has loved a profitable life overseas swindling expertise startups by pretending to be a billionaire investor. Davies’ latest invention seems to be “CodesToYou,” which purports to be a “full cycle software development company” primarily based within the U.Okay.
The rip-off artist John Bernard a.ok.a. Alan John Mykailov (left) in a latest Zoom name, and a mugshot of John Clifton Davies from practically a decade earlier.
Several articles right here have delved into the historical past of John Bernard, the pseudonym utilized by a faux billionaire expertise investor who tricked dozens of startups into giving him tens of tens of millions of {dollars}.
John Bernard’s actual identify is John Clifton Davies, a convicted fraudster from the United Kingdom who’s presently a fugitive from justice. For a number of years till reinventing himself once more fairly just lately, Bernard pretended to be a billionaire Swiss investor who made his fortunes within the dot-com growth 20 years in the past.
“The Private Office of John Bernard” let or not it’s identified to funding brokers that he had tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to spend money on tech startups, and he attracted a stream of latest victims by providing terribly beneficiant finder’s charges to brokers who helped him safe new purchasers. But these brokers would ultimately get stiffed as a result of Bernard’s firm would by no means consummate a deal.
John Bernard’s former web site, the place he pretended to be a billionaire tech investor.
Bernard would promise to speculate tens of millions in tech startups, after which insist that corporations pay tens of hundreds of {dollars} value of due diligence charges up entrance. However, the due diligence firm he insisted on utilizing — one other Swiss agency known as The Inside Knowledge GmbH — additionally was secretly owned by Bernard, who would invariably pull out of the deal after receiving the due diligence cash.
A wide range of clues recommend Davies has just lately adopted a minimum of one different id — Alan John Mykhailov — who’s listed as chairman of a British concern known as CodesToYou LTD, included in May 2022. The CodesToYou web site says the corporate employs gifted coders in a number of nations, and that its programmers provide “your ultimate balance between speed, cost and quality.”
The group from CodesToYou.
In response to questions from KrebsOnSecurity, CodesToYou’s advertising and marketing supervisor — who gave their identify solely as “Zhena” — stated the corporate was not affiliated with any John Bernard or John Clifton Davies, and maintained that CodesToYou is a legit enterprise.
But publicly accessible details about this firm and its management suggests in any other case. Official incorporation paperwork from the U.Okay.’s Companies House signify that CodesToYou is headed by an Alan John Mykhailov, a British citizen born in March 1958.
Companies House says Mykhailov is an officer in three different corporations, together with one known as Blackstone Corporate Alliance Ltd. According to the Swiss enterprise monitoring service business-monitor.ch, Blackstone Corporate Alliance Ltd. is presently the entity holding a decision-making function in John Bernard’s faux due diligence firm — The Inside Knowledge GmbH — which is now in liquidation.
A display shot of the inventory images and corporate-speak on John Bernard’s previous web site. Image: Archive.org
Also listed as a associate in Blackstone Corporate Alliance Limited is Igor Hubskyi (a.ok.a. Igor Gubskyi), a Ukrainian man who was beforehand president of The Inside Knowledge GmbH.
The CodesToYou web site says the corporate’s advertising and marketing group lead is Maria Yakovleva, and the photograph of this worker matches the profile for the LinkedIn account identify “Maria Y.” That identical LinkedIn profile and photograph beforehand listed Maria by a unique first and final identify — Mariya Kulikova; again then, Ms. Kulikova’s LinkedIn profile stated she was an government assistant in The Private Office of Mr. John Bernard.
Companies House lists Alan John Mykhailov as a present officer in two different corporations, together with Frisor Limited, and Ardelis Solutions Limited. A cached copy of the now-defunct Ardelis Solutions web site says it was a personal fairness agency.
CodesToYou’s Maria additionally included Ardelis Solutions within the work historical past part of her LinkedIn resume. That is, till being contacted by this creator on LinkedIn, after which Maria’s profile image and any point out of Ardelis Solutions have been deleted.
Listed as head of enterprise improvement at CodesToYou is David Bruno, a Canadian man whose LinkedIn profile says he’s founding father of a company known as “World Privacy Resource.” As KrebsOnSecurity reported in 2020, Bruno was on the time selling himself because the co-CEO of an organization known as SecureSwiss Secure Communication AG, and the founding father of one other tech startup known as Secure Swiss Data.
Secure Swiss Data’s area — secureswissdata.com — is a Swiss concern that sells encrypted e-mail and knowledge companies. According to AreaTools.com, that web site identify was registered in 2015 by The Inside Knowledge GmbH. In February 2020, a press launch introduced that Secure Swiss Data was bought in an “undisclosed multimillion buyout” by SecureSwiss Secure Communication AG.
A cached copy of the Ardelis Solutions web site, which stated it was a personal fairness agency and included related inventory photos as John Bernard’s funding web site.
When reached in 2020 and requested about his relationship to Mr. Bernard, Mr. Bruno stated the 2 have been enterprise companions and that he couldn’t think about that Mr. Bernard could be concerned in something improper. To this present day Mr. Bruno is the one particular person I’ve spoken to who has had something constructive to say about Mr. Bernard.
Mr. Bruno didn’t reply to requests for remark this time round, however his LinkedIn profile not makes any point out of Secure Swiss Data or SecureSwiss — each corporations he claimed to run for a few years. Nor does it point out CodesToYou. However, Mr. Bruno’s former firm SecureSwiss is listed as one of many six “portfolio” corporations whose companies are promoted on the CodesToYou web site.
In mid-2021, Bruno introduced he was operating for public workplace in Ontario.
“The Kenora resident is no stranger to the government as he contributed to Canada’s new Digital Charter, Bill C-11, which is a new Cyber Security policy,” reported Drydennow.com, a information web site that covers Northwestern Ontario. Drydennow says the subsequent federal election is anticipated to be held on or earlier than Oct. 16, 2023.
John Clifton Davies was convicted in 2015 of swindling companies all through the U.Okay. that have been struggling financially and searching for to restructure their debt. For roughly six years, Davies ran a sequence of corporations that pretended to supply insolvency companies, however as an alternative merely siphoned what little remaining cash these corporations had.
The very first entity talked about within the expertise portfolio marketed on the CodesToYou web site is named “MySolve,” and it purports to supply a “multi-feature platform for insolvency practitioners.”
Mr. Davies’ fourth spouse, Iryna Davies, is listed as a director of one of many insolvency consulting companies within the U.Okay. that was a part of John Davies’ 2015 fraud conviction. Prior to his trial for fraud, Davies served 16 months in jail earlier than being cleared of murdering his third spouse on their honeymoon in India: Colette Davies, 39, died after falling 80 toes from a viewing level at a steep gorge within the Himachal Pradesh area of India.
Mr. Davies was charged with homicide and fraud after he tried to gather GBP 132,000 in her life insurance coverage payout, however British prosecutors in the end conceded they didn’t have sufficient proof to convict him.
The scams favored by Davies and his alter egos are good as a result of he by no means approaches traders straight; slightly, traders are incentivized to place his portfolio in entrance of tech corporations searching for monetary backing. And all the perfect cons start as an concept or chance planted within the goal’s thoughts.
It’s additionally a dependable rip-off as a result of corporations bilked by small-time funding schemes not often pursue authorized motion, primarily as a result of the authorized charges concerned can rapidly surpass the losses. On high of that, many victims will possible be too ashamed to confess their duping. Victims who do press their case in courtroom and win then face the daunting problem of amassing damages from a slew of ephemeral shell companies.
The newest Bernard sufferer to talk publicly — a Norwegian firm hoping to construct a fleet of environmentally pleasant transport vessels — is now embroiled in a lawsuit over a deal gone dangerous. As a part of that rip-off, Bernard falsely claimed to have secured $100 million from six different rich traders, together with the founding father of Uber and the artist Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, higher referred to as The Weeknd.