Introduction:
Updates on the Story
🕵🏼 The Fallout: What Happened After We Exposed MPT
When we first published our investigation into MusicPromoToday (MPT) in December 2024, we knew they wouldn’t be happy about it. What we didn’t anticipate was just how far they would go to silence us. And also, how bad they would be at it. All of these tactics are ineffectual. As you can see, not only does the original article remain live, a follow up is now published. It is our humble opinion that MPT is as bad at intimidation as they are at crime.
Since the article went live, MPT has engaged in a relentless campaign of retaliation, throwing everything they can at us —legal threats, intimidation tactics, and, most recently, a direct attack on our site developer’s music career.
Haven’t Read Part One Yet?
Go and check it out so you can get some much-needed context on the continuation of this very-heated drama.
Updated: Feb 9, 2025
🦈 Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water, MPT’s Scandalized Asbestos Lawyer strikes again!
This Asbestos lawyer is really invested in the interests of MPT, despite the fact that he has made confusing, often conflicting statements concerning whether or not he is actually representing them in an official legal capacity (as opposed to trying to intimidate us, off the record, or as a favor for a friend). It would be unlikely that a lawyer who specializes in Asbestos litigation would be MPT’s first choice to litigate this case.
While logic and reason would imply that Kanayan is writing these legal letters as a favor to MPT, he still claims that he remains a totally unbiased legal authority, aware of the constitutionally-protected rights governing free speech and free press as well as being a resident expert on the legal aspects of the music industry, despite his legal practice’s focus being on Mesothelioma cases. That doesn’t add up for us.
Phil Kanayan is a seemingly-disgraced attorney, who appears to be doing favors for his buddies at MPT, presumably out of a sense of loyalty established by their shared cultural identities and religious beliefs.
That’s the only motive we can identify for why Kanayan might be going to bat for MPT, especially when he would be such an odd choice otherwise. When you consider the fact that his legal expertise is so far removed from the subject of this case, and that his “clients” seemingly have no ties to him beyond simply their shared cultural backgrounds, it begins to look like a fair assumption that Kanayan’s motive for sending these threats on letterhead is as simple as a friendly favor to MPT.
It’s an assumption, but it’s a safe and innocuous one. It means nothing, it just helps us to understand the motives behind some of these actions which otherwise would seem a little … well, frankly, bizarre.
To be clear: We are all about people looking out for one another – regardless of what motivates that loyalty – but not at the expense of what’s morally right, legally protected, or at the expense of others.
A Note On Ethical Accountability:
We’d like to take a second to be very clear about one more very important thing:
We hold the individuals accountable for wrong-doing; we hold Anto and Raffi, Suzanna and Phil accountable. Not their chosen religion or country of origin.
Countries don’t do bad things – people do.
We don’t care where they are from or what religion they ascribe to. There are bad apples in every basket, and we certainly don’t blame the basket for that.
When Phil and MPT brings their race or culture into the conversation, it’s an attempt to sidetrack the focus from what the individuals involved have done wrong.
Raffi and Anto could be from the moon and it wouldn’t matter to us. It would do nothing to change the fact that they have scammed and defrauded people, and are now attempting to silence the press on that topic. We hold the scammers accountable for their wrong-doing. Not the countries or cultures they may have come from.
So, it becomes very difficult to justify Asbestos Lawyer Phil Kanayan’s recent actions when viewed through that lens.
The Latest Play from the Disgraced Asbestos Lawyer
In the very beginning of MSA, we had a sponsor who was affiliated with this project. She is a very well-known name in the music industry. Most of you would have definitely heard about her, as her legacy is world-famous among independent artists.
🤕 So, naturally, one of the first things MPT did to attempt to harm MSA (and to leave us without funding or legal support) was to go after our then-site-sponsor instead of us.
This all happened before the first MPT article was ever published, during the research phase when we were in talks with MPT, trying to give them a chance to officially comment on the situation ahead of us writing about it. That’s just part of the protocol in ethical journalism, but, in retrospect we wonder if we should have extended that basic courtesy to them at all. It certainly did us no favors, in this situation.
Like every other scammer, when given the opportunity to defend themselves, they squandered that opportunity, and instead went after our sponsor with legal threats, knowing she had a lot more to lose than we did.
Our previous site-sponsor, regrettably, had to leave MSA, which was a decision we all came to together in order to protect her interests, both financial and legal.
MPT probably thought that would be the end of it. Surely we wouldn’t publish the MPT article with our sponsor out of the picture. The money was gone. The legal backing was gone. The name-notoriety was gone. What was left to motivate MSA to continue this important-but-dangerous journalism?
💭 After all, what motive would we have to fight them if we were no longer financially backed or legally protected by our site sponsor? The answer is simple: The same exact motive we had before: To protect artists, even at our own expense.
MPT didn’t count on that.
The Latest Development:
Now, in the wake of realizing that nothing else was working, MPT went after our site’s previous sponsor again, sending their now-disgraced (and likely soon-to-be disbarred) asbestos lawyer to do their bidding.
He sent our previous site sponsor an email recently, attempting to discredit us to someone who isn’t even affiliated with MSA.
We are wondering if we should expect them to call our parents next. Begging them to reason with us.
This is not how legal matters are pursued, in case that isn’t abundantly clear through basic reasoning skills.
If MPT (or Phil, or Suzanna, or whomever) would simply supply evidence to support their innocence, we would review it in good faith and amend our statements if it held up.
We have told them all this countless times. They haven’t done that because – we can only assume – such evidence does not exist.
The email he sent our previous site sponsor has been redacted to protect her interests.
We aren’t worried about this and we don’t want our readers to be, either. We know MPT has no legal leverage in this case, and they certainly are not helping matters any by sending their friends after us in every ineffectual way imaginable. The optics of that, from a legal standpoint, are simply abysmal for MPT.
The next step we will have to take will be to file a harassment suit against Asbestos Esq, and thanks to the generous donations from our readers and site supporters, we now have enough of a savings set aside to be able to accomplish that. We will see if he forces our hand or not.
🐰 The letter Asbestos, Esq. sent to our site’s previous sponsor (February 5th, 2025) is below.
Letter from Asbestos, Esq. to Our Site’s Former Sponsor:
Conclusion: How We Got Here
Clearly, MPT is scrambling.
First, they tried to get WordPress to remove our website, and that backfired. WordPress not only vowed to protect our cause in court, they equally slapped MPT with a DMCA Abuse notice.
Then MPT botted our site developer’s album on Spotify, and had it removed from the platform. Due to connections afforded to the blog, we were able to speak with platform execs and explain the matter. Now, her album is set to be reinstated, with protections in place to ensure the same thing can’t happen again in the future. So, that plan of theirs didn’t work either.
Then MPT sent their Asbestos lawyer after us, but he is completely inept when it comes to the law, so that proved to be not at all intimidating to us.
Then they attempted to send Suzanna Moran after us. Suzanna Moran is Dimash Qudaibergen’s new Manager and long-time Fan (so, his Fanager?) and while there’s a lot to that side of the story that we still don’t fully understand (motive-wise) what we can say with confidence is that she seems to have decided to remain loyal to MPT over Dimash and the interests of his career. We just can’t begin to guess at why that is.
Suzanna attempted to run the same play as Asbestos, Esq. but it failed when we reached out to her legal firm to confirm they supported her in her representation of their firm in this way. When that achieved radio-silence from Suzanna’s end, we knew we had struck a nerve.
Suzanna appears to have been acting on her own authority, but doing so on the legal letterhead belonging to her law firm – and by doing so, she was asserting their support and authority where she had no such permission to do so.
And that just about brings us up to date. But we had no idea they would be desperate enough to do what they did next:
MPT’s latest underhanded move is to send Phil (aka Asbestos Esq.) after our site’s former sponsor, who is no longer affiliated with the blog – and hasn’t been, since before the first MPT article was ever published.
That definitely constitutes harassment, as they are now reaching out to parties who have nothing to do with this fight, in the hopes they will find our Achilles heal. The problem they’ll soon resign themselves to is, we don’t have one.
We’re independent artists. We have nothing to our names, and thereby, nothing to lose. That’s why we are so uniquely qualified for the work of whistle-blowers.
✍🏻 We have nothing they can take from us, or extort us for, or use as leverage against us.
We do only good things, for the sake of only good itself, and ask for nothing in return. If they can’t say the same for themselves, they’re in real trouble.
When you have the law on your side, facts supporting your claims, and evidence upholding those facts, there’s little any bad actor can do to stop you. And that’s the position MSA is lucky to be in. All they can do at this point is to continue to waste their own time and resources on this pitiful attempt to intimidate us. And that could end up costing them in the end.
🪦 Digging Their Own (Legal) Grave:
MPT’s attempts to intimidate us into silence not only lack legal standing but could also constitute violations of federal law.
While there is no single statute that explicitly criminalizes suppressing the press, actions such as obstruction of justice (18 U.S.C. § 1505), conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241), and harassment (18 U.S.C. § 2261A) can apply in cases where individuals or entities attempt to threaten, intimidate, or retaliate against journalists for lawful reporting.
The First Amendment protects the free press, and any efforts to undermine that right will only expose them to further legal scrutiny. In short: MPT has no case, but their threats could very well become a legal liability for them.
As we have repeatedly told everyone associated with MPT: Insisting they are innocent is not enough. We have evidence to support our claims. If MPT would like us to reexamine our assessments, they will need to provide us with evidence to support theirs.
MPT has refused to do that, because – of course – it would be difficult to prove something that simply isn’t true. So, given that proving their innocence isn’t possible for them, they have resorted to baseless threats and random intimidation tactics. That will not bode well for them in court.
And court is exactly where this should have ended up, assuming they thought they even remotely had a case.
We know they don’t, and clearly they know that, too. Otherwise, we would’ve been officially served by now, as opposed to having an Asbestos lawyer whining (to everyone he can find an email for) that we said mean things about his best friends. Sorry buddy, that’s just how it turns out sometimes when you decide to defraud innocent parties for your own personal gain. It’s not personal, it’s justice.
We would like to remind MPT that it is their right to pursue legal action against MSA, if they feel that is what is best for themselves and their interests.
If MPT would like to respond to our claims via official legal channels, we will respond appropriately. Anything short of that is harassment, and more-so with every unsolicited, threatening letter they write.
🐰 Until then, we remain a voice for the victimized, and we won’t be silenced by MPT and their goons. MSA here, letting our readers know we aren’t going anywhere.
Stay safe out there.
The Saga Begins:
End of January 2025
🤖 MPT Bot-Attacked Our Developer’s Music & Got It Removed
On January 30th, 2025, our site developer (who has been the one primarily involved in dealing with the MPT goons) found that her entire album was removed from Spotify due to “artificial streaming violations.” Let’s be clear—this was not the normal kind of bot-attack going on. It wasn’t the kind we are all used to, where an artist gets added to some random playlist, with bots who listen to that playlist on loop, very obviously inflating the numbers artificially.
This was direct streams (not a playlist) and all those streams were coming from India. We know that the only people who still use this archaic kind of bot attack is MPT (as evidenced in the HIVE Agency invoices). This was an intentional attack.
MPT has a long history of using botting as both a sales tactic and a weapon—manipulating streaming numbers to falsely boost artists while simultaneously endangering their accounts. In this case, they botted our dev’s music without her consent, triggering Spotify’s detection systems and getting her album removed.
This isn’t just speculation. This is a known tactic used by companies like MPT to punish critics and sabotage artists who expose their business practices. And it fits a pattern of behavior they’ve demonstrated time and time again.
The Angry Emails & Escalating Threats
Since December, we have received countless emails from MPT and their affiliates — some demanding takedowns, others outright threatening legal action. Each message follows the same formula:
- Vague legal threats that never materialize into an actual lawsuit.
- Attempts to discredit our investigation by suggesting we were “manipulated” by anonymous sources.
- Insistence that MPT is innocent, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
🚨 The latest escalation? Suzanna Moran, a lawyer with direct ties to Dimash Qudaibergen, has now joined their campaign.
Updated: February 4th, 2025
The Suzanna Moran part of this is by far the most perplexing aspect. We never meant for this investigation to be a Dimash-centric affair. While we did have a brief entry concerning him in our original article, most of our investigation centered around the fraudulent acts of MPT, and a small portion of our investigation was focused on finding and speaking with the artists they had victimized.
While attempts to reach Dimash’s team for comment went unanswered during our original investigation, we decided to include a few passages about Dimash for two simple reasons.
The first reason was, most of MPT’s clients were too afraid to talk to us, and the ones who did begged to be left out of the story. Many were worried MPT would attack their artist accounts and try to set them back in their careers (something our site developer can fully confirm is a valid fear).
Our first job as journalists is to protect our sources, and it’s something which is constitutionally protected as well as morally obliged. So, we were left with only a few names and interviews we could include and attribute in print.
But, in journalism, you don’t need to necessarily interview someone in order to write factually about their situation, as long as you can substantiate what you’re writing about (meaning, as long as you can prove and cite that what you’re saying is true) and as long as you have sound journalistic reasons for writing about it in the first place. So we did some research on Dimash’s situation, and collected evidence that we could write from.
So, the first reason we included Dimash in our article – to summarize all of this – was because we wanted to discuss the damaging consequences of working with Music Promo Today, and to note the danger that the agency posed to artists, both big and small.
We also had compiled sufficient evidence to say that MPT liked to target foreign artists who had reached the “developing” (almost-famous) status, presumably because these artists would be unfamiliar with the American music industry, and would be (for lack of a better phrasing) easier to trick. Dimash appeared to be a perfect example of that kind of play, so including it in the report made perfect sense.
The second reason we wrote about him is because we were worried about what would happen to both Dimash’s career and to the careers of any artists who followed in his footsteps – if he were to sign with MPT long term.
Evidence suggested that Dimash was poised to be MPT’s biggest artist acquisition in the history of all of Anto and Raffi’s fraudulent PR companies. He was their golden goose. Their long-awaited payoff.
🧠 We knew we could substantiate this as true because we already knew two things for sure:
1. Dimash was a real person, real artist, and one who was really planning to sign on with MPT. He wasn’t just some made up celebrity that MPT had created, assuming Americans would believe the story because they wouldn’t necessarily know who was a huge superstar overseas. We were easily able to verify that Dimash was real, and that he was legitimately a big deal in terms of the European music world. That was important because it was something we could evidence as opposed to just assume. Since we try to avoid assumptions as journalists, we only have two choices for breaking a story like this: We can find the artist, contact them, and hope they grant us an interview, or we can research the artist, collect evidence, and hope that the evidence indicates something valuable to us. Interviews for this case were scarce and hard to accomplish, so, we pivoted over to researching an artist whom we knew for sure existed, and who we could actually verify was in-fact working with MPT.
2. All of MPT’s big-name clients that they claimed to have served had all turned out to all be part of their insidious fabric of lies. So, even though we can verify that the famous rapper Future exists, we could not substantiate that he had actually worked with MPT – and in fact, we only found evidence to support the opposite. We were running into a situation where, every artist on MPT’s list either was real, but hadn’t really worked with MPT, or, was likely not real, and therefore hadn’t really worked with MPT.
We needed someone who was real, and had really-worked-with-MPT to move forward with this part of our report. Dimash simply fit that bill. He was one of the few parts of MPT’s story that they hadn’t entirely made up or lied about. We could work with that.
Conclusion: Our Motives for this Angle
MPT never worked with Beyonce – there’s no shocking headline there. Due to the connections this blog is fortunate enough to have, we were able to reach out to the teams for a few of the famous artists MPT claimed to have worked with. We can’t quote, describe, or attribute those statements in print, but we can tell you what the result of speaking with them was: None of the big-name artists supposedly on MPT’s past-roster even knew who MPT was, or what any of this was even about. MPT had simply faked their own resume – but on a massive and deplorable scale.
Dimash appeared to be MPT’s first real celebrity client. And remember, the reason MPT had been lying about working with famous artists was, presumably, because they hoped that one day those lies would materialize into something real; that an unsuspecting artist, newly approaching major-level fame, would see their false roster and sign on with them, believing MPT was the PR choice of the stars. We believe that MPT hoped more famous artists would follow suit after that. Would MPT have cleaned up their act if fake-it-til-you-make-it had worked out for them? We don’t know – nor do we particularly care. This isn’t Minority Report – we aren’t interested in what would hypothetically happen if MPT hadn’t been caught in the criminal phase of their master plan. We only care about what they have done, are doing, and what they consistently and remorselessly do to victimize artists who made the mistake of trusting and believing in them. That’s what we care about.
In the research phase of the original report, we felt that if MPT successfully landed Dimash, it could make it easier for them to lure in other famous artists later, and at that point, they could begin to do so on the basis of actually working with Dimash.
To be honest, protecting already-established or already-famous artists is not our priority-number-one. It’s something we, of course, do care about – but, our main priority is protecting smaller, unknown independent artists, as they are more vulnerable to deceit and more harmed by financial loss.
✍🏻 So, Dimash was meant to be just one small aspect of our report, and was never intended to be one of the biggest chapters in this story. Unfortunately, Suzanna Moran had other plans for us.
Updated: Who is Suzanna Moran?
Our own investigation team, The White Hat Initiative, did some deep digging on Dimash’s new manager (and our new aggressor) Suzanna Moran. They discovered that her involvement in Dimash’s career is particularly strange, considering that before she became Dimash’s manager, she was a huge fan of his. And not in a normal, everybody-likes-Taylor-Swift sort of way, either.
The closest comparison we could come up with is Kathy Bates in Misery. That’s just our very-exaggerated comedic opinion of the situation. And, granted, we don’t have a complete understanding of the Dimash Fandom or the politics involved in all of this drama. What we have is a very incomplete narrative in that regard. But, we do know that the fans we have spoken with since the original article was published have been awesome people to get to know. We feel deeply for their situation, and relate to their desire to protect an artist they love. We just feel like that about every artist – but, the sentiment still feels the same.
If forced to choose a side in a fight we barely understand, we’d be on their side in a second. Especially with the alternative being emotionally unstable lawyers and PR fraudsters.
One thing we can evidence for certain is that Moran climbed the proverbial ranks of Dimash’s team, and became the main person in charge of his music career – and before that, she was an avid fan of the young pop star.
❤ In any case, Moran still seems to have an unhealthy obsession with Dimash. Like, she might have a shrine to him in her house, or something. That’s totally unsubstantiated though. It’s just sort of the vibe we get. (We’re allowed to catch a vibe).
Now, Moran is trying to pressure us into removing all references to Dimash from our reporting — despite MPT’s very public connection to him. Also despite the fact that she has no legal grounds for requesting this, and attempting to suppress free speech can be viewed as a federal crime.
Another baffling part of this story: We were shocked to learn just what kind of law Suzanna specializes in. Join us in a thought experiment:
💭 Think about how many stories and movies throughout our modern era have incorporated the trope of a nurse or a doctor being a secret murderer on the sidelines. Lots of these stories exist. It’s a popular framework for books and movies.
And what’s the reason for this trope’s enduring popularity? It’s probably because it’s incredibly ironic and horrifically chilling to think about someone whose job it is to save lives – spending their free-time secretly taking lives.
In a similar vein (albeit a far less dramatic and life-threatening one), Suzanna Moran is our story’s very own incredibly ironic, horrifically chilling trope. And that’s because, as a lawyer, Moran specializes in Litigation Protection for Whistleblowers.
Let’s break down what that job title means. It means that Moran’s chosen occupation is to protect those who speak out against unjust systems, and unjust people. She has elected to be an advocate for those who publicly speak out against predators, fraudsters and scammers, whether they be companies, systems, or people. Her job is to protect Whistleblowers and watchdogs – like Music Scam Alert – but her free-time is spent tearing them down. The real question we still have is, why? And further more, why us? What’s in it for Moran? We don’t know for sure. Moran would have us believe it has everything to do with Dimash – but that doesn’t add up for us. We still don’t know. We are willing to bet that if we knew everything we wanted to know, we’d still be confused.
Moran’s reasons for conducting herself the way she does – both professionally and privately – are likely to be as off-the-rails as everyone else exposed by this investigation. Birds of feather, it would seem.
🧐 What’s continued to baffle us is this:
If you were a music manager, who finally got the chance to represent the artist of your dreams, and you heard that the new PR Firm you just signed on to represent your artist was potentially a fraudulent organization – what would your reaction be?
We are guessing you answered the way we would. Most people would have the same reaction to this situation: They would probably want to know as much as they could find out about this PR Firm’s alleged fraud – and, given just how many legitimate PR Firms exist in America, most people in Moran’s position would probably just sign their artist to a different firm – just to be safe.
Wouldn’t you? Of course. So would we. So why isn’t Moran thinking like we would?
That’s what we can’t quite piece together about this. Why would Moran be so unwilling to hear any criticism about MPT, especially when Dimash clearly means so much to her – and has, for such a long time? What does she have to lose by signing him to a different American PR Firm? There are so many of them – countless amounts of them. Some are scams, but, with the resources available to Moran, she should easily be able to suss out who is a snake and who isn’t. People do that job every single day.
Some of the research we have done on Moran seems to indicate a troubling pattern, and one could conclude from it that many of her major life decisions may have been angled at someday working with Dimash (though this is merely inference, not evidenced – and there’s nothing wrong with having long term goals. We aren’t faulting her for that part of this whole thing).
But, think about it: If working for Dimash was so incredibly important to her – why is she even taking a chance with a PR Firm that people are calling fraudulent? Who would dare risk it, in her position? And furthermore – why?
🧠 The only logical conclusion is:
Moran is obsessed with Dimash – he means a great deal to her. But something (and we won’t pretend to know what) – something is even more important to her. While we have no idea what that thing could be, if forced to guess, I’d say it’s probably money. It’s almost always money. But that is just speculation. She could also just be irrational, or maybe there’s something about this situation we simply don’t know that would help explain her motives. As it stands, however – it appears Moran has been historically deeply-motivated by a desire to work with Dimash. We love that for her. But then, something shifted. It seems somewhere along the way, something else became even more important to her. So, safe to say, we no longer love that for her. Unless MPT is holding a proverbial-gun to Moran’s head, we can only assume that thing is money.
Since December, 2024
🐰 An Asbestos Lawyer, A Fan-Girl Manager, DMCA Abuse, Bot Attacks, and so much more…. Sheeesh!
At every step, MPT’s goal has been the same: to erase any trace of our reporting and intimidate us into silence. They’ve gone from sending an asbestos lawyer after us (yes, really) to now using lawyers connected to Dimash, hoping that a bigger name will scare us into silence with weak and absurd legal threats that hold no actual weight and wouldn’t stand a chance in court.
But here’s the thing: They wouldn’t be fighting this hard if the truth wasn’t exposing them.
If they had a legitimate argument, they would have refuted our claims with facts. If they had a strong legal case, they would have filed a lawsuit. If they weren’t guilty, they wouldn’t have needed to bot attack our developer’s music just to get us to take the article down.
🐰 Rabbit Hole
Learn About Bot Attacks
To learn more about this important music industry topic, jump down this friendly rabbit hole! The link will open in a new tab, so you won’t lose your place in this article. Remember: Knowledge is scam repellent!
🕳 ️DIVE IN
The wall that MPT keeps hitting is simple: They don’t have facts. They don’t have a case. What they do have is a pattern of shady, aggressive, and unethical behavior that they’re desperate to keep hidden.
MPT built their entire scam operation on the guise of a fabricated reputation. When we exposed the reality of their PR firm’s fraudulent operations, we essentially undid all their hard work. We won’t lose sleep over that.
And that brings us to Part Two of this saga. This one is dedicated to all of the tireless employees of MPT, since their continued efforts to silence and suppress our journalism was the very thing that inspired us to continue their story, rather than leave it as it was.
MPT’s Playbook, Exposed
In this follow-up, I’m pulling back the curtain on exactly how MPT operates, their history of botting, deceptive marketing, and retaliatory tactics, and why artists need to protect themselves.
This isn’t just a simple scam report anymore. It’s a warning to every artist who’s ever considered working with MPT and their affiliated gang of cons and criminals.
🚨 Is it a Scam? What’s The Verdict?
In case you missed Part One: MPT is a scam. They are a PR firm, who creates a dangerous charade of misdirection, operating in an illusion of their own design. They live in fiction where they’re the greatest to ever do it, and they need everyone else to believe that with them – or else. Their entire misguided roster of dubious business models and various shell corporations operate under the same confusing opaqueness. It’s all smoke and mirrors, and we can prove it.
MSA here, and this one is officially a SCAM CONFIRMED.
Note: As we receive information and help from our readers, we update our articles with anything we can substantiate. Enjoy, and thanks to everyone who contributes. ~ MSA
Read PART ONE of the MPT Saga here: Part One
Mid December, 2024:
A Warning to MPT
👩🏻⚖️ Holding Scammers Accountable:
Protecting Artists
And Holding Scammers Accountable:
At Music Scam Alert, our mission is to help artists avoid predatory practices in the music industry. Transparency, evidence-based reporting, and ethical action are at the core of our work. In certain extreme cases like this one, we have taken steps to gather more sensitive information about individuals or organizations perpetuating scams. This information would be shared with legal authorities or verified legal representatives of victims, and solely for the purpose of pursuing justice. Not to defame, harass, or endanger. If MPT stops defrauding artists, ceases all threats against Music Scam Alert, and no one else is harmed via their predatory practices, then we will, at that time, consider this a case-closed.
⚖️ Why We’re Sharing This Message:
Why We’re Sharing This Message:
Music Promo Today (MPT), and its affiliates, have engaged in multiple types of fraudulent and predatory business practices, as well as publicly and privately messaging us with thinly veiled threats. To this day, they continue to behave in ways which raise significant concern. Unfortunately, since we first made contact with MPT during the research phase of this article (in order to give them the opportunity to issue a statement in their own defense, which they didn’t take), MPT has been emailing, messaging, and posting various threats directed at us. They have continued to escalate their actions by making direct threats toward individuals affiliated with Music Scam Alert, multiple times. Photo evidence of those threats is included in this article. We take these threats seriously. In all cases like this, our goal is to stop the scam company, by any means which we are morally and legally justified in taking. Legal Disclaimer: We are committed to ensuring the safety of all parties while holding MPT accountable for any fraudulent behavior.
🕵🏼 What We’ve Learned Recently:
What We’ve Learned Recently:
Thanks to the support of our readers, we have recently gathered incredibly extensive information about MPT and its affiliates, including:
- Business registration details in multiple countries.
- Publicly available identity and contact information for all implicated individuals mentioned herein.
- Full legal names, in Armenian and English for all parties involved.
- Complete documentation of their operational practices from multiple countries under multiple corporation titles, with the majority of their doings legally constituting as fraudulent.
🐰 An Understandable Contingency:
An Understandable Contingency
This sensitive information will only be shared with appropriate legal authorities or verified legal representatives upon request. We will not publish sensitive data publicly, as our mission is to protect, not harm. While exposing a scammer’s fraudulent business is not something we will lose any sleep over, any actions on our part which might bring harm to any individual would be against our moral code. That’s why we will retain this information and not release it publicly.
Unless:
This new information we have obtained about MPT has been shared with several unaffiliated individuals we know and trust. They are holding on to copies of it. Should something happen to our site developer, or to myself, this information will be publicly released by those parties who currently retain our backup copies. On another legal note – it is important that we specify that this release won’t come from us – should it ever be made public – due to unforeseen retaliation being taken against us.
The point is, something pretty bad would have to happen for it to go live. We’re not in the business of hurting anyone. But we take every precaution to protect ourselves and other artists, short of putting other individuals at risk.
✍🏻 A Note to MPT:
A Note to MPT:
We strongly urge MPT to cease any retaliatory actions against our site developer, our staff writers, and our researchers – as well as insist that you cease your predatory practices, targeting music artists. Continuing to imply security risks for those at Music Scam Alert, or others working to expose these fraudulent practices, will not be tolerated. Please note that if you continue these behaviors, those actions will result in this information being forwarded to the relevant authorities, including local, federal, and international agencies, to ensure accountability. We encourage MPT to shift focus toward legitimate business practices and away from actions that harm artists or undermine their careers.
💛 A Note to Our Readers:
A Note to Our Readers:
As always, we thank our readers for their vigilance and support in uncovering scams like this in the music industry. Your contributions help protect countless artists from exploitation, and the recent informational leverage you provided us with helps protect us against retaliation as well. Moving forward, we will remain steadfast in our commitment to transparency and accountability. We thank you for being here, and for continuing to fight the good fight with us. We appreciate each and every one of you.
— The Music Scam Alert Team
TL,DR? We Got You.
🕵🏼 Our Message to Music Promo Today:
We would like to let MPT to know that, thanks to the help from MSA fans, we have obtained information such as the legal names (English and Armenian) for the various personas operating MPT and associated organizations. We have also obtained various forms of documentation, including business registry reports from open source informational databases in Canada, America, and Armenia, with particular regard to the following corporations:
Music Promo Today / iNexxus / Developpement de Logiciels TDA INC. / TDA Software Development INC.
Any further attempt to suppress the free press, as well as any evidence of continued harassment or fraud, will result in MSA sharing this information with relevant Local, Federal, and International Authorities in the US, Canada, and Armenia, as well as with the IRS and CRA to ensure full accountability. Please cease any further threats against Music Scam Alert and its staff. Equally, we strongly advise MPT to pursue a more upstanding means of generating income, adopt ethical and safe business practices, and to stop defrauding artists.
⚖️ To Our Readers, Pursing Legal Action:
If you are pursuing legal action against MPT, please have your legal team contact us privately via email on official letterhead. We will share any relevant evidence we have to assist in expediting your case.
After the Article:
Update: February 2, 2025
MPT’s Escalating Legal Threats: Takedown Requests & Intimidation Attempts
Since publishing our investigation into MusicPromoToday (MPT), their response has not been to dispute the facts or provide evidence to counter our findings. Instead, they’ve chosen a different route — one that relies on legal intimidation, vague threats, and attempts to silence our work. Let’s take a look at some of their latest infractions.
Buckle up gang, this is going to get ugly. 🐰
Abuse of DMCA Report System:
Before MPT even sent their first legal threat directly to us, they tried to get this blog taken down through WordPress itself. Shortly after our investigation went live, they filed a fraudulent DMCA takedown request, hoping that WordPress would blindly remove the article without question. But instead of complying, WordPress sided with us, citing MPT’s clear abuse of the DMCA system. Their attempt to misuse copyright law to silence investigative reporting failed—and that was just the beginning.
See WordPress’s Response Email to Us:
The Asbestos Lawyer
Next, they sent a takedown request from an asbestos lawyer (because nothing says “credible” like an attorney who usually deals with mesothelioma cases). This lawyer proceeded to demean and belittle our female reporters, while proving himself utterly incapable of operating within the bounds of the law, or within the etiquette expected of even the sleaziest litigator.
The Asbestos Lawyer’s Takedown Request
Our Emails With the Asbestos Lawyer:
Proof That No Certified Letter Was Sent By The Asbestos Lawyer:
Suzanna Moran, The Strangest Part of the Saga:
When that didn’t work, they upped the ante by bringing in Suzanna Moran, a lawyer with direct ties to Dimash Qudaibergen.
For context, Suzanna Moran is an attorney who has aligned herself with MPT and recently became Dimash’s manager. Before that, from what we can tell, she was just a lawyer. A lawyer with an unhealthy obsession with Dimash.
Now, in an ironic twist, she’s trying to erase reporting that connects Dimash’s name to MPT, despite MPT’s very public involvement with him.
And what does her legal argument boil down to? Essentially, “Dimash doesn’t need saving, and you shouldn’t be talking about him.”
But of course, Dimash was only one of several artists we discussed in our article, and he was one of the less critical aspects of the MPT case overall. To be honest, we considered him a bit of a footnote. (No offense, Dimash – you’ve certainly become a headline for us, at this point. Just know that we are pulling for you and wish you lots of continued success in your career, which you have very much earned, all on your own).
The full takedown request I received from Suzanna Moran on behalf of DimashAli Creative Center, LLP:
Takedown Request from Suzanna Moran
Analysis of Suzanna Moran’s Takedown Request:
Her argument is weak at best. She claims that by mentioning Dimash’s name in the article, we are misappropriating his likeness under Texas law.
🐰 However, public figures do not have an automatic right to remove factual reporting just because they don’t like it. This is basic journalism law — a fact that, as an attorney, she should already know. (Ms. Moran, there’s no shame in Googling these things if you weren’t paying attention in law school).
She also claims that our work is not protected under the Communications Decency Act (CDA) — which is a bizarre argument since CDA §230 protections are completely irrelevant here.
🕵🏼 We wrote the MPT article as a team of one site developer, one volunteer reporter (me), and with the help of our two in-house investigators. It was not user-generated content, meaning her attempt to invoke the CDA is nothing more than legal jargon thrown in to sound intimidating.
And then there’s the psychological manipulation.
She suggests that we were “used” by anonymous sources who tricked us into writing this. Which makes her seem emotionally unstable – and, to be honest, we are not really sure what to make of her behavior. We are a little concerned about her – but not enough to pay her therapy bill. The things Moran suggests feel paranoid and conspiratorial, and the optics of it are not great for her.
And there’s real insult behind the implication: That we as a small unpaid team of artists are somehow not smart enough to conduct our own investigation. But we won’t give into the very-obvious ego ploys. It’s just one of many intimidation tactics in their playbook.
Suzanna Moran also suggests that these anonymous people have “abandoned us” while we “take the fall.” What people, Suzanna?? Are they in the room with us now? Do you see them all the time? Do they tell you to do things you’re not comfortable with? What people?!
✊🏻 Let’s be very clear: MSA is not taking the fall for anything – and we also will not fall for whatever this tactic is. Unless it was a tactic meant to confuse us, in which case, you win this round Suzanna.
We write thorough, evidence-based reports. We have not been “used” by anyone.
Some of us have begun to wonder if Suzanna believes it was Dimash himself who reported MPT to us. It’s one of the few theories we’ve considered that would almost make her weird actions and strange rhetoric make a little sense.
On the off-chance that she does believe that, let us clear this up now: The person who reported MPT to us was an American musician who had been scammed by MPT last year, and he wanted MPT to have some level of accountability for it. He saw us as a chance for that accountability to actually happen. We hope we’ve accomplished that for him.
The reasons for writing our original article had nothing to do with Dimash – though we do of course very much feel for his situation, and we are here to help in any way we can. Help Dimash. Help his fans. Not help Suzanna Moran or any of MPT’s cronies.
And despite Suzanna’s attempt to paint us as some kind of clueless pawns, we are more than capable of standing behind our own work. We didn’t even know who Dimash was before the MPT case.
Officially, we respect him as an artist and we wholly respect his fandom – but we are just a few unpaid artists, trying to help other artists avoid scams. That is the purpose of Music Scam Alert. Honestly, we thought that was pretty self-evident. Hopefully that clears things up for Moran and friends.
Our Read on the Dimash Situation:
It appears that Dimash’s world contains lots of political intrigue and internal drama, none of which we can make heads or tails of. But we are pulling for him, and hoping he aligns himself with those who put his interests, his well-being and his career first – as opposed to their own interests first. That’s the best we can hope for.
Our New Response to MPT’s Many Takedown Attempts:
Since everyone affiliated with MPT was kind enough to put their arguments in writing, we felt it was only right to respond in kind. We will now be publishing any and all correspondence, threats, or ill-willed acts from MPT, Moran, Asbestos Esq, and the rest of their goon squad.
We Stand With The Artists:
This is where we stand. With the artists. The independent artists, who are scammed and schemed over and over again, exploited for their hopes and solicited for the last dollar to their name. They pour their passion into their work, only to find themselves navigating a treacherous landscape filled with deceit and manipulation.
Time and time again, indie artists are promised exposure and success, yet most are left empty-handed, their hopes overshadowed by the harsh realities of a predatory industry that prioritizes earnings over ethics.
This site was never intended to be a fight, but we have begun to see that that’s exactly what it must be. A fight. It is a fight for above board business practices, and transparent promotional operations. It is a battle against a system that all too frequently takes advantage of artist’s desperation, leaving them to pick up the pieces of their dreams alone, left even more vulnerable to the next promo pusher who sees them as an easy mark.
✍🏻 We only demand that those who seek to offer services to artists are transparent about what they are able to accomplish for them, and upfront about the methods, costs and timeline involved.
For the artist who is repeatedly taken advantage of, we are here to be your voice, and that is our only motive for creating MSA. Someone has to do something. So we decided that someone would be us.
Instead of engaging in honest discourse, MPT and its associates continue to throw lawyers at us in hopes that we will fold. But we won’t. We have the law on our side. We may not have a dog in Suzanna’s fight for control over Dimash, but we stand up for the good of all artists, no matter the circumstances or consequences.
If MPT or their goons had a legitimate case, they would file a lawsuit. They haven’t. If they had evidence refuting our claims, they would provide it. They haven’t. Instead, they rely on scare tactics and legal smoke and mirrors to pressure us into silence.
That won’t work. This isn’t our first investigation. MPT is not even the biggest scammers we’ve had to take down. We know what we’re doing at this point, and our moral compass remains strong and steadfast.
Our Promise to Suzanna and MPT:
If there’s one thing we stand by, it’s transparency. If MPT (or anyone else) wants to continue escalating their efforts to suppress this story, we will continue documenting every single step of it here, in public view.
It’s time to shine a light on these transgressions and let our readers in on what we know MPT hoped would remain in the shadows.
If they want to keep trying to get us to stay quiet and shut down, we will just keep adding to this story, sharing it everywhere, and shouting it from the proverbial rooftops. And, part two? That’s just the beginning. We believe in the power of truth. We believe in the power of the free press. We believe in the power of community – and we are a community of artists who are stronger in numbers every single day. Here at MSA, we stand for artists – and we won’t back down.
Refresher of Some Key Evidence:
This is an Invoice: It’s MPT Buying Bot Plays for Artists.
This invoice was acquired through fully legal OSINT methods, including Dorking techniques. The companies they’re buying from are located in India and China, respectively. The songs from these invoices have all been removed from Apple Music, as the bot traffic likely triggered an automatic removal via the distributor due to violation of Apple’s artificial streaming policies.
Below is Data from Artist Tools.
An MPT Artist named Crystal is currently on this bot playlist. Her songs are set to be removed from Spotify due to these bot playlists. MPT will say it’s not their fault, that they didn’t put her on these playlists. But, we know that they did. Because the playlist owner information matches the domains we already know Raffi Avi owns. Because they didn’t make all their domains private like they probably should have. So, now we know. Consider it proven: MPT bots their artists.
Sharing Helps Others Avoid Scams
If someone you know has fallen prey to MPT, reach out to us at Music Scam Alert. Together, we can shed light on these dark corners of the industry and protect artists from falling victim to similar scams. We’re here for you.
To Be Continued?
We spent many months researching this very involved case. There are countless aspects to this story we could not include within the scope of a single article. If our readers would like continued follow-ups to this story, reporting on some of the aspects we had to leave out, let us know!
Super Sleuths:
Do You Have Leads for Us?
If you have any information on this case that we haven’t covered which you think could potentially be important – or if you’ve noticed something in this evidence that we missed, we’d love to hear from you about it.
Now Taking Messages on Reddit!
We’ve noticed that our readers seem to prefer the anonymity of Reddit PMs. For that reason, we setup a Reddit account just for Music Scam Alert staff. We will check the PMs there infrequently, and while it may not be as immediate as emailing us, you are welcome to speak with us through that channel if you prefer. We will leave links to that contact, as well as our regular email contact, just below this paragraph.
Have Info to Share?
Contact Us:
🐰 Stay safe, stay informed, and keep fighting the good fight.
Stay in the loop,
– Music Scam Alert Staff
don’t get duped.
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