Former UFC star Dmitry Smolyakov and 28-year-old financier Inal Sibekov launched a cryptocurrency game called Mazuri GameFi in May 2022, promising investors massive returns on a “play and earn” title.
According to accounts from investors, developers, and others who worked with the pair, the project instead left hundreds and possibly thousands of people without their money and without the game they were promised.
Smolyakov competed in the UFC with a record built mostly against inexperienced opponents. He partnered with Sibekov, a game design enthusiast who had studied finance in the United States.
The two began recruiting athletes including Andrei Arlovski, Alexander Shlemenko, and Dmitry Kudryashov as promoters, offering referral links that paid them a percentage of investor contributions. Shlemenko told an interviewer he walked away once he learned the project involved cryptocurrency: “I didn’t advertise it. Dmitry Smolyakov invited me to participate in the project. But as soon as I found out that this project is connected with crypto, you see that I am not in this project, there is no video.”
Investors poured in money through a seed round with an entry threshold as low as $300, later even lowering that barrier to attract more participants. One investor described funding the project with a family budget equivalent to ten months’ salary.
The game’s in-universe currency was named “Mazurik.” It is a word that according to Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” translates to swindler or thief.
Promises piled up: a crypto license registered to an address that turned out to be a lingerie shop in Prague, claims of developers from Wargaming and the makers of Tekken and Mortal Kombat (later disputed by those named), an NFT marketplace selling virtual apartments for $1,500, and announcements of a Netflix series with Mel Gibson and Nicolas Cage attached.
None of the major promises materialized. The game’s alpha version drew as few as 13 to 20 active players despite claims of partnerships with gaming guilds representing tens of millions of users.
Smolyakov reportedly funneled investor funds into an unrelated South American trading scheme based in Costa Rica that later collapsed, losing money that had been raised for Mazuri’s development. Marketing campaigns were announced and postponed repeatedly over roughly two years, with Sebekov citing technical delays each time.
By 2026, investors who had given up hope of recovering their money began speaking publicly. Smolyakov allegedly responded to questions by leaking personal data belonging to a journalist investigating the project rather than addressing the allegations. Both men have promised to begin repaying investors starting in the summer of 2026, a claim met with skepticism from most of those involved.
