ZackXBT: The founder of WhiteRock has been arrested in the UAE, involved in a $10 million ZKasino fraud case.

The UAE authorities recently arrested Ildar Ilham, the founder of the tokenization project WhiteRock, and initiated extradition procedures to send him to the Netherlands for investigations related to the sensational ZKasino fraud case from last year, which involved an amount as high as 30 million USD. On-chain detective ZachXBT recently pointed out the close connection between the cash flows of the two projects, revealing the underlying fraud and money laundering.

Update: Ildar Ilham aka @XBT_Prometheus ( founder of @WhiteRock_Fi) was arrested by UAE law enforcement for his involvement in the $30M Zkasino exit scam.

He will be extradited to the Netherlands next for the criminal case. pic.twitter.com/h5FZhUBiDg

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) July 3, 2025

Background Review: ZKasino presale unrefunded, took in 30 million dollars

ZKasino launched in April last year, claiming to issue a native Token $ZKAS and airdrop it to users who participated in the ETH presale staking, raising over 30 million dollars in a short period.

However, the team did not fulfill their promises according to the white paper afterwards, and users' ETH was converted to ZKAS at a discount, with forced lock-up for more than 15 months. As the controversy over the fund misappropriation intensified, the platform gradually became unreachable by the end of April, resulting in significant losses for the community.

At the end of April of the same year, the Dutch Financial Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) arrested a 26-year-old crypto KOL @Derivatives_Ape (, whose real name is Elham Nourzai), and launched an investigation on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and Money Laundering related to ZKasino. ZachXBT subsequently tracked that the funds raised by ZKasino were gradually laundered on-chain using various crypto trading methods after Elham was released.

( The suspects behind the ZKasino fraud case were arrested in the Netherlands, and Binance assisted in the investigation ).

On-chain clues: WhiteRock's cash flow and emails show the shadow of ZKasino

Zach warned last month that a member involved in the ZKasino scam was also participating in the WhiteRock project, which was just established at the end of last year. According to on-chain data comparison, the WhiteRock wallet has multiple intersections with the stolen funds from ZKasino, and some of the funds even flowed into the privacy protocol Monero to cover their tracks.

He further traced the email clues to correspond to the smart contract deployer account of WhiteRock, whose username "IldarTheGrandMaster" was found to be similar to Ildar Ilham, further confirming his identity. Zach stated that WhiteRock has always been listed by him as a high-risk project:

The complete anonymity of the project team, previous exposure for falsifying partnerships, exaggerating user data, and deliberately evading tracking by centralized exchanges through privacy protocols all indicate that it may be another refuge after the ZKasino scam.

WhiteRock founder arrested in UAE, WHITE coin price plummets by 40%

According to an update from ZachXBT yesterday, the UAE police have recently arrested Ildar Ilham and initiated extradition procedures to the Netherlands to face judicial investigation along with other suspects in the ZKasino case. Following the news, WhiteRock's native Token WHITE plummeted, with a daily decline of nearly 40%.

WhiteRock team denies: false news

At the same time, WhiteRock officials also posted a response, emphasizing that it is all fake news:

Today, there have been a lot of FUD statements, and our founder was not arrested in the United Arab Emirates! These news media are publishing articles based on specific tweets, which is truly shameful.

However, various signs indicate the connection between WhiteRock and ZKasino, once again revealing the hidden risks of on-chain projects in the absence of regulation. From on-chain fund flows, project team composition, to actual application implementation, investors should remain vigilant and cautiously assess every emerging project.

This article ZackXBT: WhiteRock founder has been arrested in the UAE, involved in a tens of millions of dollars ZKasino fraud case, first appeared on on-chain news ABMedia.