A high-ranking consultant of Russia’s infamous Finiko Ponzi scheme has been arrested in Tatarstan. Ilgiz Shakirov, a businessman from Kazan, rose to the rank of vp of the crypto pyramid which is believed to have defrauded tens of millions of traders in the Russian Federation and surrounding areas.
Kazan Police Detain Finiko Vice President
Police in the Russian republic of Tatarstan have detained Ilgiz Shakirov, a businessman from the capital metropolis Kazan, for his suspected involvement in the fraudulent theft of funds in the Finiko case, Realnoe Vremya reported. The native information outlet quotes undisclosed sources accustomed to the investigation.
Shakirov has allegedly attracted 100,000 individuals to the Ponzi scheme which is among the largest monetary scams in Russia’s fashionable historical past. For his achievements, the Tatarstan native was granted the standing of vp of the cryptocurrency pyramid.
Ilgiz Shakirov. Supply: Realnoe Vremya
In keeping with a current report by blockchain forensics agency Chainalysis, Finiko obtained over $1.5 billion price of bitcoin between December 2019 and August 2021. The digital cash got here in 800,000 separate deposits from traders lured with guarantees of month-to-month returns of as much as 30%.
Chainalysis famous that whereas it’s unclear what number of particular person victims have been behind these deposits and the way a lot of the overall quantity was paid out to traders to maintain the Ponzi scheme going, “it’s clear that Finiko represents an enormous fraud perpetrated in opposition to Jap European cryptocurrency customers.”
Many of the defrauded bitcoin holders are based mostly in the Russian Federation and neighboring Ukraine, evaluation of the sending addresses reveals. Finiko had been largely concentrating on potential traders amongst Russian-speaking populations in the previous Soviet area earlier than the scheme collapsed this summer season.
Police investigators are actually anticipated to request a everlasting arrest warrant for Shakirov inside 48 hours, Realnoe Vremya added in its report printed Wednesday. Earlier than he was apprehended, the one different Finiko govt in custody was the pyramid’s founder, Kirill Doronin, an Instagram influencer related to different Ponzi schemes in the previous.
Worldwide arrest warrants have been issued for 3 of Doronin’s associates. Along with their boss, they’re accused of embezzling at the least 250 million rubles (nearly $3.5 million) in collusion with “unidentified individuals.” Nonetheless, estimates of precipitated damages in the case proceed to develop. To date, 80 people have been formally acknowledged as victims of the rip-off with extra functions pending evaluate.
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