The case of Huseyn Hasanov. What is the scandalous blogger facing a penal colony for?

Video blogger and scammer Huseyn Hasanov is on the international wanted list. On May 14, the court issued an order for his arrest in absentia. What Hasanov is accused of and how he is remembered by the public is in the Izvestia dossier.

What is Hasanov accused of?

• Huseyn Hasanov is accused of legalizing large amounts of criminally obtained funds (art.174, paragraph "b" of Part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The maximum penalty under this article is imprisonment for up to seven years with a fine of up to 1 million rubles. The phrase "particularly large amount" is used in cases where money laundering transactions involve an amount of more than 6 million rubles.

• According to investigators, in 2019-2021, the blogger evaded paying taxes in the amount of over 170 million rubles. As an individual entrepreneur, Hasanov took part of the income from sponsors of sweepstakes, buyers of motivational courses and sports betting forecasts out of taxation, receiving funds to his personal accounts and accounts of relatives. The blogger also managed to legalize 20 million rubles through cash withdrawals and money transfers to various accounts.

• In November 2023, the League for Secure Internet appealed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a request to conduct an audit of Hasanov's activities in connection with possible fraud and advertising of online casinos. Two years earlier, the press had accused the blogger of "selling the air": he launched the "Millionaire's Mindset" course, where he promised to teach how to earn and close loans. Participation in the course cost up to 13.4 thousand rubles (the minimum wage at that time was 12.792 rubles. — Ed.). One of the bloggers who paid for that course later stated that the product development was of extremely poor quality, access to the course was opened later than promised, and the information from the course turned out to be useless. In 2023, Hasanov was included in the "black list" of Russian bloggers and agencies.

• In 2024, the Federal Tax Service seized Hasanov's property for non-payment of tax arrears. Chevrolet Tahoe and Rolls-Royce Cullinan cars were arrested, whose initial cost was estimated by the Federal Tax Service at 7 and 35 million rubles, respectively, as well as a 123.8 square meter room in 1st Krasnogvardeisky Passage, which the agency estimated at 70 million rubles.

• In June last year, Hasanov's accounts were frozen, his companies were closed due to debts to the Federal Tax Service, and the blogger himself, according to Ekaterina Mizulina, director of the Safe Internet League, went on the run. Later, the arrest of Hasanov's property was lifted, and the agency withdrew the claim. According to the investigation, the blogger has been permanently residing abroad since February 2025. Hasanov himself commented on reports of his arrest in absentia, saying on May 14 that "tax issues were closed last year."

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He has already paid damages to 64 of the 113 victims in his case.

Who is Hasanov?

• Huseyn Hasanov, a native of St. Petersburg, initially became famous for his humorous videos on social networks. While studying at St. Petersburg State University of Economics, he played in KVN - this experience helped him to easily find a language with different people and feel confident in front of the camera. After graduating from university, his father handed over the management of the restaurant business to him, but Hasanov was not interested in such work, and a year later he moved to Moscow to become a blogger. Hasanov began with short videos with practical jokes, and later starred in music videos for Russian singers, films and TV series.

• Hasanov has more than 30 million subscribers. Some of his videos were provocative violations of public order and traffic. The blogger had a solid fleet, which included Rolls-Royce Cullinan, Lamborghini Aventador, Mercedes-Benz G 350 Bluetec, Rolls-Royce Ghost, Toyota Alphard and Mercedes-Benz S 560 4Matic.

• In 2017 and 2018, Hasanov was awarded the Blogger of the Year award, and he even participated in a meeting between bloggers and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In September 2022, Hasanov left Russia across the border with Georgia. Since July 2024, the blogger has been living permanently abroad and denies that he "ran away" from Russia because of tax debts, claiming that he "lives where he wants."

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A criminal case has been opened against the blogger for tax evasion amounting to almost half a billion rubles.

Scandals

• In March 2019, Hasanov played a Mercedes G-Class Gelandewagen car among his Instagram followers (recognized as extremist and banned in Russia). The drawing provided the blogger with tens of millions of views. Anastasia Khavrutskaya, a 17-year-old Ukrainian, was declared the winner. It later turned out that the stolen car had three owners, three accidents and unpaid fines in the amount of 9,5 thousand rubles. The blogger recorded the moment of awarding the prize on video and posted it on his social networks.

• Hasanov's videos often attracted the attention of law enforcement officers. In the same year, 2019, the blogger was promised to be held accountable for gross violations of traffic rules in Samara, where Hasanov's Mercedes-Benz G63 and a convoy of 11 cars accompanying him staged races, defiantly crossing solid markings and driving into the oncoming lane.

• On May 9, 2020, a Gelendwagen blogger was stopped for driving with automatically hidden license plates. Traffic police officers found Hasanov with 714 unpaid fines for traffic violations and deprived him of his driver's license for three months. Later, the blogger came to the attention of law enforcement officers again when he repainted his Toyota Land Cruiser 200 in the colors of the Investigative Committee of Russia. Hasanov was ordered to remove all agency signs from his car.

• In 2021, the blogger was stopped in Moscow when he was driving a Lamborghini Urus, recording another video. Hasanov was offered to undergo an examination for alcohol and drug intoxication, but he refused. As a result, he was fined 30,000 rubles for drunk driving and deprived of his license for a year and a half.