Coronavirus Facebook group creator William Hawk’s real name is Ilya Tretyak

A Blockchain entrepreneur whose Facebook group on the COVID-19 coronavirus has been accused of exploiting the influenza scare for personal gain, is operating under an assumed identity.

William Hawk – whose name on LinkedIn is Alexander Bodrovich – set up the CoronaVirus Malta EU - Updates (William Hawk) group on Facebook on 30 January, in which Hawk poses as a conspiracy theorist taking on mainstream medical opinion on the coronavirus flu.

But according to an anonymous group calling itself Lascaris Cyber Defence Team, Hawk’s name is Illya Vladymirovich Tretyak. A registry look-up of his Empirium company name confirms his position as CEO of Empirium LTD, but under his real name Illya Tretyak.

The administrator of the Maltese Facebook group sharing updates on the COVID-19 coronavirus influenza, Hawk last week was accused of exploiting people by promoting the sale of face masks at €160 for a pack of five. Critics on Facebook have accused Hawk of peddling medical claims from questionable sources, and attempting to profit from gullible individuals.

Hawk claimed health officials on Friday night’s edition of Xarabank were lying about claims that the COVID-19 virus cannot spread if the infected person doesn’t show any symptoms. “Over the last months, we have witnessed many cases of asymptomatic spreaders, and some were even super-spreaders… I don’t know for how much longer they plan on keeping this misinformation campaign running, but people – please be careful,” Hawk said, accusing his critics of being “hired trolls”.

He previously claimed “tens of millions must be infected by now, given the estimate rate of spread.”

Hawk is also the admin of two other groups called Preppers Malta EU and Pandemic Preppers Malta EU, created this week, the latter formerly called ‘Jobs in Europe’.

“As with other groups on Facebook, this has turned into an echo chamber for misinformation regarding coronavirus. Genuinely concerned people join the group for information but are met with a barrage of misleading (and sometimes fake) statistics that only exacerbate their fears,” said one Facebook user who wrote an excoriating post on Hawk. “Is this what led to Tuesday’s rush on the supermarkets? One can only speculate.”

Hawk has since then posted the link to the website www.viruscontrol.eu on his Facebook groups, where he sells expensive facemasks to be paid only with “cash on delivery”. The website was registered on 22 February.

He also sells Russian military gas masks on Maltapark.com.

On his LinkedIn profile as Bodrovich, ‘Hawk’ says he is the founder of V Messenger, a blockchain messenger service. He also claims to be a fundraiser for the Lift Us Up NGO, which has volunteers in Nepal and the Philippines who work with charities there.