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Last Thursday, FreeKassa completely went offline, with its internet presence completely disappearing. Its main website went dark, social media groups on VKontakte and Telegram were deleted, and partner links stopped working.
The closure followed an Izvestia investigation published two days earlier, which alleged that the payment service had been processing transactions for illegal online casinos in Russia. The report also suggested that the platform was connected to Kaliningrad developer and IT entrepreneur Andrey Grekov.
The fallout was immediate, with partner projects, including gambling sites, removing FreeKassa from their deposit and withdrawal options.
Until then, the service had been one of the most widely used payment channels for unlicensed casinos such as 1Win, which was recently targeted in Kazakhstan with properties seized.
FreeKassa operated without license
FreeKassa’s activities were carried out outside any legal framework, with no license or tax registration in Russia. It also paid no taxes and only offered a feedback email and a support bot, while identity checks were not required.
Although Roskomnadzor had blocked the service before, it continued to function by using “mirror” sites and embedding itself into the infrastructure of illegal online casinos. Players could top up accounts in rubles, foreign currency, or cryptocurrency, with transfers routed through phone numbers and bank cards registered to so-called drops, straw men used to mask real identities.
Investigators reported that FreeKassa may have accumulated thousands of fake cards and drop numbers, creating conditions that could enable money laundering and help bypass regulatory oversight. Each transaction carried a commission, further pushing the system.
The Android app was developed by IFKSC, whose contact email matched that of Zhilibyli LLC, a housing search service officially owned by Andrey Grekov. Archived pages suggest Grekov had previously enlisted IT specialists to build the payment platform.
Another payment service is also being investigated
While FreeKassa has gone offline, investigators have pointed to another payment system that continues to operate and may be linked to the same network of illegal casinos.
According to Izvestia, this service is called Kassa.AI and could be one of the latest projects connected to Kaliningrad entrepreneur Andrey Grekov. Web analytics tools suggest the domain belongs to him, reinforcing suspicions of his involvement.
Unlike FreeKassa, Kassa.AI presents itself as a business-to-business platform for e-commerce payments. It lists SIT LLP from Kazakhstan as its legal entity, the same company tied to the DonatePay donation service.
Earlier investigations had already mentioned Grekov’s possible ownership of DonatePay, adding weight to the claim that Kassa.AI is part of his broader portfolio.
Sources told Izvestia that Kassa.AI might serve as a continuation of FreeKassa, designed to work with legal entities in a way similar to Qiwi Bank, which lost its license in Russia before shifting operations to Kazakhstan. They warned that if FreeKassa does not return, its users and partner projects, like illegal casinos, could migrate to Kassa.AI.
The gray payments market is known for adapting quickly, reappearing under new domains and storefronts while keeping the same technical base. So Kassa.AI could become the next option for transactions once handled by FreeKassa.
