The motto of FCA-authorized payment agent Hawex is “above the banks.” The UK entity Hawex Group was controlled by Russian Kirill Baldakov until March 2022. Since October 2022, Hawex Investment LLC, registered in Dubai, has been controlling the UK entity. A UBO is not specified, but it is allegedly still a Russian venture. According to our information, Indian payment veteran Ruchi Rathor is one of the Hawex partners. We reported Hawex‘s collaboration with FCA-regulated Connectum (report here).
Key Data
| Trading name | Hawex |
| Business activities | High-risk payment processor Merchant acquirer |
| Domains | https://hawex.com https://hawex.io https://hawexdao.com |
| Legal entities | Hawex Limited (UK) Hawex Investment LLC (UAB) Hawex Holdings LLP (UK) Hawex PLC (Malta |
| Jurisdiction | United Kingdom United Arab Emirates Malta |
| Authorization | FCA (reference no 903015) |
| Related individuals | Jevgenijs Marenics (LinkedIn) Kirill Baldakov Ilya Karpov Vladislav Kuvshinov Ruchi Rathor Juris Liepa |
| Connected schemes | Connectum, HoneyPay |
| PayRate42 rating | Black Compliance (profile here) |
The Hawex Narrative
Hawex is an FCA-authorized electronic money agent (EMD Agent) of the FCA-authorized e-Money Institution Paystree Limited.
Until March 2022, UK-registered Hawex Group Ltd was controlled by the Russian Kirill Baldakov. Since October 2022, it has been controlled through Dubai-based Hawex Investment LLC, owned by Russians and Indian-British Ruchi Rathor. The director registered in the UK entity is Latvian Jevgenijs Marenics. More than 40% of Hawex‘s website visitors between October and December 20200 came from Russia, followed by Spain with almost 26%.
According to our documents, Hawex merchants processed more than €81 million through their FCA-regulated partner Connectum in June 2022. The merchants come almost exclusively from high-risk gambling, crypto, or online marketing areas. Most of these high-risk merchants are based in Cyprus, followed by the UK and Estonia.
According to information available to FinTelegram, Hawex is closely connected to HoneyPay and the FCA-regulated Connectum.
Share Information
If you have any information about Connectum, Hawex, or HoneyPay, please share it with us through our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
