HeadsUp Entertainment International Inc (HDUP)

[benjjones]

After waiting months and months for some news I decided to do further due diligence. The history of the Spinola CEO and founder does not make for good reading. Ade Repcenko (or Abe Adrian Repcenko on company listings) is his current identity, but his original name was ABE ADRIAN CAMILLERI. You only have to Google this to find out that he spent a lot of years in Australia where he acted as a finance con man, made himself bankrupt on several occasions and took innocent peoples life savings in the process (including his own family and friends), all through mortgage and lending fraud.

In 2009, he was jailed for fraudulently misappropriated an investor's money through his company at the time, Asset Finance Services Pty Ltd. After his release from jail, he then got involved with John Ibrahim in multi-million pound mortgage fraud. When this case went to court, he pushed blame elsewhere and then fled the country back to Malta. This is where he changed his identity and took his wife’s name (they’ve now recently divorced), to attempt anonymity for anyone searching him.

Whilst back in Malta he tried a number of methods to make money, including marketing, web development and campaign hacking. His fraudulent behavior has continued with a number of court hearings in Malta, where he owes people large sums of money. He then moved into the gaming industry. Having absolutely no background in this, Spinola Software Solutions was formed and registered via Cyprus in 2016. The Jackpot Group was later registered in Malta. As we know, Malta/Cyprus offers protection when dealing outside its jurisdiction and has a clear advantage on gambling due to the lack of legislation. Repcenko wanted to attract overseas investors - step up HDUP - by showcasing Spinola as a business that was lucrative and that had millions of euros in contracts. The lies continued with bold statements such as “leading provider” and a number of paid strategic industry papers to enhance the company’s image. In reality, this was a ruse given that the software (to this day) still doesn’t exist, other than fake demos and no contracts. No updates on socials since 2021 either. A handful of mock-ups have been the extent of Spinola, and that’s all that was required to assist investment. HDUP has been blindsided.

Going by the financial listings, HDUP have forwarded a serious amount of money without any returns. You have to question what due diligence has taken place given what I’ve easily found during a simple search. The fact that this is listed as a loan gives some indication on how this has been played out and is the exact same tactics that saw Repcenko/Camilleri jailed previously. He is a known criminal for fraud and as his internet history shows, he has a very persuasive and coercive method of operation.

The silence on any further acquisition, other than a nonsense and repetitive “both parties working together” line in the financials, tells us that HDUP have 1/ realized they’ve been duped; 2/ been given the silent treatment whilst Repcenko walks away with their money; or most probably 3/ 1 and 2 combined! Either way, getting money back from Cyprus/Malta is going to be a tough ask. The silence is deafening from HDUP (no messages for a year) and I’m sure they’re as gutted as we all are that the Spinola deal has turned out to be one massive scam.

Repcenko/Camilleri has already moved on to his next victim and is now working for WA Technology as “Lottery CCO”. I’ve noticed that the Spinola website is offline for long periods and hasn’t been updated in over 2 years. Their staff (I would guess former) are clearly not very happy: “the company is a scam” - https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Overview/Working-at-Spinola-Gaming-EI_IE5024887.11,25.htm - all indicating that no bills have been paid and are now defunct.

Sorry to say, but my conclusion is that the Spinola deal is non-existent and absolutely dead in the water and has been for a number of years. If the $2million loan figure is accurate, that’s a horrible one for HDUP to write off!