It’s only been one month since Private Internet Access CEO–Andrew Lee, started a thread on Hacker News with some interesting findings about the prestigious encrypted email company ProtonMail, and it’s offspring, free to use service ProtonVPN. Lee did some digging and found out that these companies are not exactly what they seem or even claim to be. ProtonVPN AG, the host company–a company that claims it is operated in Switzerland, is actually operated by ProtonVPN LT, UAB,  a Lithuania based company.

ProtonVPN LT, UAB seems to be directly tied with a company called Tesonet–which is also based out of Lithuania. Tesonet is a data mining company that uses various machine learning techniques to structure and farm data to sell it to other businesses. What does this mean? Well, at the end of the day it just might be yet another reason to NEVER trust a free VPN service with your data–but it also might mean the end to one of the most popular VPNs of all time.

ProtonMail and Proton VPN Systematically Dismantled by Andrew Lee

In order to understand the ramifications and impact of the partnership between the Proton Company, Tesonet, and NordVPN, we need to first discuss how Lee found out how Protonmail and ProtonVPN are owned by data mining company Tesonet.

According to ProtonVPN’s website they are based out of Switzerland. A lot of people assume that when a VPN is based out of Switzerland, it’s way more credible. The legendary Pirate Bay is based there right, and they are indestructible right?

Well, unfortunately, ProtonVPN is actually based out of Lithuania, and it shares the same address as Tesonet. As you can see from the below screenshot, or link, the company is “Cyber Alliance, UAB” and the URL contains “protonVPN”. The address for this company is “J.Jasinskio g. 16c, LT-03163 Vilnius”. Now, if you go to the Tesonet website, the company even shows that the base of location is in “Jasinskio st. 16C, Vilnius, Lithuania”. Sketchy right?

When shown this information, ProtonVPN replied to the accusation on Reddit as seen below. 

The way that PR works usually is damage control, and it becomes VERY evident that is what ProtonVPN LT, UAB is trying to do. In this first post, the company employee explains that the relationship between the same address exists only from shared rented space. There is no other justification beyond that. He makes sure to clear the air by explaining there isn’t ANY shared employees or infrastructure.

However, upon further questioning, ProtonVPN LT, UAB admits that ties between Protonmail and Tesonet STILL EXIST to this day!

So as you can see, the employees behind ProtonVPN LT, UAB are making up the story as they go, backtracking when needed. It’s sort of like a guilty criminal at a police interrogation, trying to patch in the holes and admit things when they have to. Not only that, but ProtonVPN’s Android APK file for Android phones, is even signed by Tesonet. 

Of course, the team has an explanation for that as well, that a member of the HR department was formerly a member of Tesonet just “happened” to accidentally put Tesonet in the certification.

Proton CEO Shared by Tesonet and NordVPN?

According to a website called spec.IT, a man named “Darius Bereika” is the CEO of Tesonet. Of course, as we mentioned earlier, ProtonMail and ProtonVPN changed the name of their parent company to “Cyber Alliance, UAB” but since the address is the same as Tesonet, we can assume it’s the same company. The information relating the CEO to be Darius Bereika is hard to find, suspiciously so.

So Hackernews had some suspicions that NordVPN was also run by Tesonet, which would be bad news. However, now we have some CLEAR evidence and proof that Bereika–and thus Tesonet, is associated with NordVPN.

Proof that NordVPN is Owned by Tesonet

#1 NordVPN Processes Payments CloudVPN Company

When you checkout with NordVPN, on Paypal, you can see they process payments through their company called “CLOUDVPN INC”. See the screenshot below:

If you look up some Tesonet IP addresses what do you think you’d find? Well, unfortunately, you find that several CLOUDVPN INC IPs are affiliated with Tesonet.

This is a clearcut example and proof of evidence that shows that NordVPN and Tesonet are working together and share network infrastructure.

#2 NordVPN Company, “CLOUDVPN INC” Controls NordVPN App Development

Not only does CLOUDVPN INC control the payment processing for NordVPN, but they also control the application development. Just from screenshots from the Google Play Store, you can see that CLOUDVPN INC. is the developer of the NordVPN apps. Since we just showed the link between CLOUDVPN INC sharing IPs with Tesonet, this is clear proof that shows Tesonet has some deep ties into the infrastructure and development of NordVPN.

#3 NordVPN Company, “CLOUDVPN INC” Files Contact Update for State

In this document, you can clearly see that Darius Bereika, the CEO of Tesonet, and a man named Michael Schwartz, are being added to the president and director roles of NordVPN company CLOUD VPN INC. This document essentially proves that Tesonet now owns NordVPN, Proton Mail, Proton VPN. All three of these businesses are most likely data farms for parent company Tesonet which is a data mining company. Do you want to use a VPN that is owned by a company that literally harvests data and sells it to other businesses?

Furthermore, in April of 2017, CLOUDVPN INC even added ANOTHER director by the name of “Tomas Okmanas” who just also happens to the be Co-founder of Tesonet.

What does this mean?

NordVPN is one of the biggest VPNs around, ranked #1 VPN by PCMag. We’ve always treated the VPN with a grain of salt, even if the app delivered mediocre speeds and some Netflix compatibility. But now, their reputation is one the line, and quite frankly, completely destroyed since their parent company is a data mining company.

For every user of NordVPN, Protonmail, and Proton VPN, be warned that your data could be already sold.