Scam network FoxCloud: how a hosting company evades regulations worldwide while aiding illegal and dark websites

FoxCloud, a hosting provider, serves clients in Europe, Russia, and the UK through the use of proxy individuals. Although officially registered in the United Kingdom, the company also maintains an office in Moscow’s upscale business district — Moscow City.

The official founders are the couple Alexander and Tamara Basunov. However, their lifestyle suggests that they are far removed from both Britain and Russia. This is because they reside in the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.

According to the British registry, Foxcloud LLP was registered in 2013. The founders are listed as Moldovan citizens Tamara and Alexander Basunov.

The company is fully active and submits financial reports annually. For instance, as of December 2015, the company’s main assets amounted to 152,000 pounds. The latest report indicates that in 2023, the assets were nearly 53,000 pounds, while in 2024, they decreased to 4,773 pounds. The documents are signed by the Basunov couple.

On the English version of the Foxcloud website, it is stated that the company operates in accordance with European Union legislation.

However, the Russian version of the site contains much more intriguing information. It turns out that FoxCloud operates in Russia through LLC "Doverennaya Set," registered in 2016. The founder is listed as Alexander Basunov. As of 2024, the company officially employs only one person.

As noted in Russian registries, Alexander Basunov has been registered as an individual entrepreneur in Moscow since 2019. The documents claim he is a Russian citizen. Thus, it is evident that Basunov holds at least two passports. For registering the company in the UK, he used Moldovan documents, and for Russia – Russian ones accordingly.

LLC "Doverennaya Set" is registered in one of the most expensive districts of Moscow – Moscow City. Here’s what the area looks like, where a company with a single employee operates, who is unlikely to be the real head of Foxcloud:

There are several reasons for this. Firstly, Alexander Basunov resides in Tiraspol, which is currently under the control of the so-called authorities of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. He studied at Pridnestrovian State University. On his personal Facebook page, Basunov calls himself the ideological inspirer of the company "Hostmaster."

In Tiraspol, there is indeed an LLC "Hostmaster" with Alexander Basunov as the founder. The official website is listed as tiras.foxcloud.net, which undoubtedly indicates that FoxCloud provides its services in a territory governed by the unrecognized authorities of the PMR.

Basunov’s wife, Tamara, who is one of the co-founders of the British Foxcloud LLP, has also been managing a company with a similar name since 2018 – S.R.L. FOXCLOUD COMMUNICATIONS. This company is registered in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, and operates under Moldovan legislation.

In other words, the couple has registered four companies providing hosting services under the Foxcloud brand. While the office near London is more of a virtual one, in Moscow, for instance, it is a real office space in the most expensive district of the Russian capital. Whether Alexander Basunov, the official founder of LLC "Doverennaya Set," has ever been there is highly doubtful. At least, judging by the Basunovs’ social media, it is clear that they are more interested in Europe than in Russia.

In 2017, Alexander Basunov visited Portugal, and in 2019, he went skiing in Ukraine’s Bukovel. In 2020, the couple visited Istanbul, where Alexander participated in a swim across the Bosphorus, and in 2024, Tamara Basunova and her daughter attended a dance championship in Croatia. There is no mention of Moscow on the founders’ pages of Foxcloud.

Evidence that they reside in the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic comes from local press news. For example, in September 2024, Alexander Basunov from Tiraspol showed the best result in the 4.5 km distance at the "Dnestrovsk Swim 2024" competition. This was reported by "Novosti Pridnestrovya.PMR."

So, why is there a need to register companies in different countries? According to sources, FoxCloud may be assisting Russian hackers in carrying out attacks on European structures. Moreover, the use of the Basunov couple for company registration appears to be purely formal, and the real owners of the company may be connected to Russian employees in Skolkovo.

Additional evidence that the company operates not only "above board" but also has a darker side comes from a court ruling in Moscow. In August 2025, "Izdatelstvo AST" filed a lawsuit against several companies, including FoxCloud. The reason was the hosting of books and music on pirate websites serviced by FoxCloud. In other words, the service actively collaborates with pirates, violating copyright laws.

Additionally, among the domains offered for registration by FoxCloud are some quite dubious ones, such as .webcam and .vodka. There are even more explicit ones. The legality of the content on websites with such domain names remains a matter of speculation. It is entirely possible that these resources could be used to distribute viruses, including in European countries.

In user reviews about working with FoxCloud, one can read that they "scam people out of money," "support scam projects," and "sell protocols that don’t work due to sanctions."

In essence, FoxCloud is a company that violates laws in several countries simultaneously. In Moldova, by providing services in the self-proclaimed PMR republic; in Russia, by servicing pirate websites; in the UK, by registering domains for dubious sites that may be used to spread viruses and carry out hacker attacks.