Sumsub, the company selected to verify voters in the Coordination Council elections, has responded to a publication by Nasha Niva. The outlet had claimed that the company had Russian roots and data leaks.
Sumsub sent a letter to the editorial office of Nasha Niva clarifying several points from the article.
The company disagrees with the statement: “Today the company positions itself as British, but in reality the British legal entity Sum and Substance Ltd is owned by Cyprus-based Raritex Trade Ltd. We do not know who actually controls the company.”
The company explains that Sumsub is a global brand, while Raritex Trade Ltd — a company registered in Cyprus — currently serves both as the holding company of the Sumsub group and its main operating structure. The founders and sole ultimate beneficial owners are brothers Andrew Sever, Jacob Sever and Peter Sever, and additional information about the ownership structure is available in a public statement.
Sumsub states that the 2024 security incident was inaccurately presented in the article.
“The incident was identified and investigated by SumSub itself, rather than being ‘dragged’ into the public sphere through third-party publications or activity on hacker forums,” the letter says.
Sumsub also states that the publications mentioned in the article regarding Smart Engines and Sumsub’s past activities are based on questionable sources.
“More broadly, many of these materials presented as ‘investigations’ rely on a combination of publicly available information, selective omissions, manipulative presentation and, in some cases, outright false allegations in order to create a narrative that does not reflect the real state of affairs regarding Sumsub’s ownership structure, operational activities, compliance practices or technological infrastructure,” the letter states.
Sumsub denies any connection with the Russian state, says it takes its reputation seriously and is prepared to defend itself against defamation by all available legal means, “including, where appropriate, lawsuits for defamation, malicious falsehood and unfair competition.”
“We once again categorically deny any connection between Sumsub and the Russian state, Russian special services or the Russian armed forces,” Sumsub states.
It should be recalled that after Nasha Niva’s publication, the developer of the voting platform for the Coordination Council elections, Pavel Liber, said that an additional review of Sumsub would be conducted. Voting in the Coordination Council elections was postponed by almost a day. It will begin on May 11 at 22:00.
