In early August 2022, we issued a whistleblower request regarding the high-risk payment processor SumoPay founded by the US citizen Kevin Ring. After our initial request, the website with the domain www.sumopay.io vanished. Still online is www.sumopay.org. The payment processor specializes in (illegal) online gambling sites in Asia and processes their payments for fake merchants. Whistleblower exposed Futures Inc. (https://futures-inc.co.jp) as one of these fake merchants. We would like to know more.
PayRate42 Rating Agency
FinTelegram readers know that in our research and reporting, we emphasize high-risk payment processors that, unfortunately, very often act as facilitators of cybercrime organizations and their illegal activities. For this reason, we also founded the cyberfinance rating agency PayRate42 together with partners a few months ago with the mission to list, review, and rate them.
Follow the SumoPay profile on PayRate42.
Key Data
| Trading name | SumoPay |
| Business activity | High-risk payment processor for Japan and South Korea |
| Domain | https://sumopay.org |
| Legal entity | SumoPay Co Ltd (not found) SumoPay Inc. (not found) |
| Jurisdiction | United Kingdom |
| Related individual | Kevin Ring, US |
| Related entities | AnimeX Co. Ltd, Famiike Co Ltd, STA Group Co Ltd, FUTURES Inc. (https://futures-inc.co.jp) |
| PayRate42 profile | Black Compliance list (link to profile) |
| Authorization | No |
Short Narrative
Until our initial request, SumoPay‘s meanwhile vanished website (https://sumopay.io) stated that SumoPay Co Ltd, based in Kent, United Kingdom, was the operator. However, we have not been able to find this company in the UK Companies House. On the website SumoPay.org, Futures Inc. is stated as the operator, but no credentials are provided. We believe that it is a fake company.
Besides Futures Inc, SumoPay established a portfolio of fake companies to launder illicit proceeds, including AnimeX Co., Ltd., Famiike Co., Ltd., STA Group Co., Ltd. Among the SumoPay clients, we found Casitabi, Cherry Casino, Casino Me, Yuugado, or Mystino.
The links on the SumoPay.org website to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Services lead to templates on the Google websites. There is no reference to any legal entities, jurisdictions, or persons. Furthermore, SumoPay does not provide links to any social media accounts of involved persons on its website. This is quite common for the high-risk payment sector unless they work with fake profiles like the iPayTotal Group with OpenUp.Finance, Paypound, Payomatix, or Hawex.
The company’s CEO is Kevin Ring, a US citizen based in New York.
Share Information
We want to know more about SumoPay, its operators, and its partners. If you have any information, please share it with us through our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
