Caught in the FTX storm: how a crypto high-flyer fell to Earth
Mastercard has cuts its ties with the Maps payments app run by British-educated cryptocurrency tycoon Alex Grebnev, who was backed by Sam Bankman-Fried, amid a row over Russian users
As western brands began the stampede out of Russia a year ago, its citizens found themselves unable to pay for the international goods and services with which they had become so familiar.
Among the first firms to sever ties were the credit card companies Visa and Mastercard, leaving Russians struggling to spend their cash on services from Netflix to Amazon.
But as the country was isolated by the west, sources claim that some enterprising Russians discovered a clever loophole – by using some technological knowhow and a particular mobile phone app they could sidestep those restrictions, allowing them to stream movies and shop online.
The app in question can be traced back to the second floor of an office in London’s wealthy Knightsbridge district, where the Russian-born, British-educated tech entrepreneur Alex Grebnev runs his ventures, including Maps, a payments, mapping and cryptocurrency app.
