He’s smart, he’s an accomplished liar, and now Impotent says he’s retired.

Sometimes people surprise me. “Impotent” did. He’s gone by a number of usernames online over the past few years.  “Everyone knows me under many different aliases. Let’s actually call me mainly Pulpo. I also used ‘Creeper, ‘Impotent,’ ‘Kmeta,’ ‘KmetaNaEvropa,’ and ‘Promise,’  but on my markets, I was usually just ‘Admin.’ The main identities I love are ‘Impotent’ and ‘Pulpo.’  ‘Pulpo’ made me my biggest money. ‘Impotent’ made me the biggest connections,” he told me.

On his markets? Biggest money? Biggest connections? Who was this guy that I had not been particularly impressed by when he first contacted me as “Dissent Joe” to invite me to Exposed.vc?  At the time I first interviewed him about Exposed.vc, he struck me as someone who knew how to get headlines for himself. I was pretty sure he was lying to me about how he got the RaidForums user database that he leaked, and I couldn’t really trust his word on anything at that point, but was he actually smart enough to have made a lot of money?

Despite my misgivings about him and despite some concern about stories he told me that involved brutality and physical violence, I didn’t block him when he contacted me again. Chalk it up to my curiosity about people. And the more we chatted, the more I came to realize that I was not talking to an obnoxious skid but to someone who made plans and executed them successfully.  But now I had the opposite concern: Was he so smart as a scammer that he was now scamming me?

Some days, it’s not easy being me.  😊

The man I first met as “Kmeta,” and then as “Impotent” said he is leaving now. He told me a few days ago that he has retired. Could it just be an OpSec claim on his part or is telling the truth? He agreed to be interviewed on his way out because he said wanted to send a message to young criminals and also wanted to leave a farewell message to some friends. You will find both those messages at end of this article.

The interview transcribed below was conducted over Telegram over a few days. It has been lightly edited for clarity and to correct typos..

Dissent (D):  In earlier chats this month, you told me you’re Bulgarian. You also told me that you never went to school at all – that your parents had sent you out to work at age 6 to make some money because your family was poor. It was either that or starve, you said.

Impotent (I): Yes, I was forced to work. I grew up at the time where communism and democracy were changing and we had a big inflation. I worked 12-hour days from age 6 – 15 cleaning parks and things. I worked when I could. I stopped work if my hands simply couldn’t move. So u can imagine the dream childhood. I left home when I was 15.

And yes. I did not go to school. I taught myself everything – reading, writing, English, German, Russian, and of course, Bulgarian.  I think I am at a bigger level than most of the others as I speak a lot of languages fluently and can write.

I did not like the way I was raised. I still think my parents are uneducated and not smart people.

D: You said you left home at 15. How did you survive after you left home?

I: I survived by going to the casino and playing a trick on the workers on the blackjack.

D: What kind of trick?

I: Just played with the cards – had some under the table.

D: A lot of hackers I have chatted with started out gaming. You previously told me you had no TV or anything as a child, so how old were you, and what were your first experiences on a computer and on the internet?

I: I was 17 when I bought my first phone. A phone was 10x the average salary so you can imagine how much I made by 17 years old. About gaming, maybe I was 25.

D: You once told me you really weren’t a hacker. So how would you describe yourself?

I: I describe myself as smart and a liar. I describe myself as smart, because I am. Maybe there are people smarter than me but they are simply dumb.

D: So how old were you when you first started making money on the internet via illegal activities?

I: On the internet, 25. Before then, I used to deal with the local mafia that included selling guns and having a few people that worked for me.

D: How did you learn the skills that you have used on the internet?

I: I can’t really say I have any super special abilities. I am not even a web developer. Since working with previous distros based on linux, I often find it easy to setup things I will eventually use in my businesses. I learned from the mistakes of the others in which I was able to make secure applications like Grams , Kilos, Exposed and etc. The most important thing I learned is OpSec.

D: You once estimated that you made about $100 million over the past few years from different ventures. What markets or sites have you owned?

I: Nightmare Market was my first-ever business. That made me at least $20 million. I also had WorldMarket. That’s the only one of mine that ever got seized. I don’t really know how much money I made from that one as my wallets got all mixed up.  I also had Kilos and Elude. About $130,000,000+ was processed through Kilos. With Kilos, I connected with 100’s of thousands of vendors and a couple million buyers with an estimated $750,000-$4.3M In theft based on average weekly income – maybe closer to $20-$45M for me.  I also started the first dark web search engine, Grams, but that didn’t make me any money. And I pulled an exit scam on Exposed.vc that got me about $60,000.00

D:  What about Elude?

I: Elude was mine, too. I created it as a competitor to Kilos so if people didn’t go to Kilos, they would still be coming to me.  Elude made me about $100k a week.

D: So you estimate you’ve made about $100 million. That’s kind of mind-boggling to me.

I: That is just the illegal one.

D: You have a legal one?

I:  Of course, what do you think I do with 100M in cash.

D:  Um….  I have NO idea.  Tell me?

I: Well like Lockbit3, I have restaurants. I also own a few companies that are recycling trash. And I also own a big brand here for clothes.

D: Are you an owner in name/finances only or do you actually get involved in running the companies?

I: I am owner.  Full ownership. I sold 40% of the brand to a bank in exchange for a few millions.

D: You had said your parents sent you out to work as a child. You wound up making a ton of money. Did you give any to your parents or ….?

I: I was always in bad mood to them, I still don’t like to talk with them but yes. they got a big part (according to them) of my money. When my father passed away I made sure someone can go and watch my mother. I told them if they will use this money it will be outside of the continent.

D:  Have you done any other things with the money you have made?

I: I have helped many people with the money, bought houses and stuff, and  I have donated up to 3M to an agency for sick children.

D: You said ‘Pulpo’ made you the most money. Which operations or activities were as Pulpo?

I: Pulpo is life. Pulpo is everything. Pulpo used to make a lot, but Kilos itself made me the most. Dark net vendors often worked with me.

D:  What do you mean Pulpo is life and everything? I don’t understand, sorry.

I: Pulpo made me, Pulpo is the one that changed my personal life and mind. Impotent was a staged one. I never was truly happy with people writing me for support on a forum or something similar.

D: What was it you did first as Pulpo that changed your personal life and mind?

I: Well I finally became a guru in business plan, and as I said in our first interview, I learned to kill my competitors and other things that made me grow :0

D: I’m afraid to ask if you mean “kill” literally.

I: No. I did not mean kill literally.

D: Did you have a mentor?

I: Nope

D:  You had told me that you worked with Purism for about 20 years or so. Did you ever work with ransomware groups?

I: I never worked for them, but they have worked for/with me. I was never a fan of working for someone and will never be one.

D: Going back to what you said about not being happy just being support on a forum: If you didn’t want to be support on a forum, why did you keep trying to extort BreachForums.vc to make you a moderator or let you buy into part ownership of the forum?  Did you really want to own or moderate the forum or was that an act for some other purpose?

I: I had bad mind about them and still do. I deeply hate all of them. Euclid is the main reason I hate the forum. I was trying to get inside so I can harm them. I had a RCE but I had to have the moderator role.

D: You said ‘Impotent’ made you the most big connections. How did Impotent — a persona you introduced specifically for Exposed.vc —  wind up making so many big connections for you? I would have thought you would have had big connections already by then, no?

I: I had but for one month I got a lot more job offers which I loved.

D: Job offers from ransomware operators or ….?

I: Not only

D:  What other types of offers?

I: I can’t talk about this, but a lot.

D:  Your last scam before retiring targeted some ransomware groups. Can you talk about that?

I: Yes. I scammed 5 ransomware groups for approximately 1M USD. I prepared myself for 8 months.

D: How did you prepare for it?

I: Started to give them proofs, made deals with them, and more.

D: You mean you made smaller deals with them so they would see you as a reliable seller?

I: Yes. Some for 10, 20k.

[Note: Impotent provided DataBreaches with some actual details about scamming the ransomware groups, including the username he used in his negotiations with the them. He did not reveal the names of the groups he scammed, saying he did not want to bring more shame to them. According to him, he did not target Russian ransomware groups. And although he did give DataBreaches some details on the nature of the scam, DataBreaches is not revealing those details. For purposes of this interview, DataBreaches agreed to let Impotent simply describe the scam as selling them an unknown exploit that they didn’t receive.]

 

D: You actually started to scam 11 different groups, but told me that you stopped after getting about $1.4 million from 5 groups.  Why did you stop at 5? Did it feel like you finally had enough or what?

I:  I felt that I don’t need more enemies.

D: Are there any scams you’ve pulled that you wound up regretting or feeling guilty about?

I: No I never felt guilty. It’s just business. Nothing personal.

D:  So now you have retired. You told me that you’ve got no crypto wallets anymore and nothing in the works. After years of working so much, what’s next for you?

I: I want to have the life I never had. Maybe a family. Kids. Wife.

D: What stopped you from having those already? Concerns for their safety or not feeling able to tell anyone what you were doing?

I: I focused on work only. Also concerns about who she may tell.

D: Before we close this part of the interview, is there anything I haven’t asked you that you wished I had asked you?

I: Yes. I wish you had asked me, “Why did you do all this?”

D: That’s a great question and I can’t believe I forgot to ask it. So tell me, why did you do all this?

I: I did all of this because I was hungry. Not for money, Not for fame but hungry for success.

D: And is it only now that you can feel you are a success?  You didn’t feel you were a success before now?

I: No. I didn’t. The day I felt success is the day I officially said, “I retire.”

D: Was it scamming the ransomware groups that made you feel successful? You were already hugely successful financially.

I: It’s not all financial.

D: But did you really suddenly feel successful the other day when you hadn’t felt successful before?

I: Yeah. When I said the words “I retire” in the mirror, I felt it.

D: I know you wanted to take this opportunity to send young criminals a message.  What is it your message to them?

You dear kids will lose your life. You will have fun doing nasty stuff. Do it. But don’t do it after you hit 30. Maybe the young teen life should be crazy. But after that, think about your rest of the life.

D: That really goes along with something else you said to me recently when I commented on all the wealth you had acquired. You told me that yes, you had that,  but that I had something you didn’t have — a life. It’s a sobering thought. And as we see with Umbreon and Pom and others, it doesn’t take much to ruin a life and any hope for a future life.

I know you also wanted to take this opportunity to send a goodbye message to some people?

I: Yes, I have to say stuff to people I worked with for over 20 years. Imagine: 20 years, and a goodbye in a few lines. Such a hard thing. A lot of love, hate, drugs, haha.

To the few people I truly loved:

You people, were with me for a long time of my life. I want to say thanks to all of you and a very unexpected goodbye to most of you. I will miss you and will think about you.

Please reconsider your life’s before its too late!

To: Mishka, gdboparelosers, purism, BayGanyo, KypNothic, Pom, Emo, ContiCunts and 0bit.

I wanted to add armadyl to that list. Sadly and late I found what kind of a manipulative and weak faggot he is, with much pain I still love him but he does not deserve to be on the list.

Goodbye!
-Kmeta, Impotent, Pulpo and many more 🙂

And with that, he’s gone. But is he really gone? Time will tell.