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One of the founders of Russia’s most notorious Ponzi scheme in recent times, Finiko, is in custody in the United Arab Emirates, according to a Russian media report. The close associate of the mastermind of the crypto pyramid left the Russian Federation when the scam collapsed last summer.
Zygmunt Zygmuntovich, a co-founder and high-ranking representative of arguably the biggest Ponzi scheme in Russia since MMM in the 1990s, has been captured in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Russian portal “Business Online” reported on Thursday. The arrest has been confirmed by the Russian Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the publication, the 24-year-old man, a German citizen, has been held in a prison in the Gulf state since the beginning of September. Russian prosecutors told the news outlet they were informed of his detention by the local Interpol agency. Russia has already submitted an extradition request to the country’s Ministry of Justice, which is currently under consideration by the competent authorities in Abu Dhabi.
Zygmuntovich was placed on an international wanted list as Russian law enforcement launched a criminal investigation into the fraudulent investment scheme, along with Marat Sabirov and Edward Sabirov, two other associates of Finikos founder Kirill Doronin, who has been in prison since July 2021. The three men managed to leaving Russia when the financial pyramid crumbled.
The whereabouts of the Sabirovs are unknown at this time, and the exact circumstances under which Zygmuntovich was arrested are also unclear. But knowledgeable sources have told “Business Online” that his two former partners may have tipped off security forces about his location.
The defendants in the criminal case are a further 22 people, including Finiko’s leading promoters. Among them are two women, Lilia Nurieva and Dina Gabdullina, as well as Finiko’s vice president and Doronin’s right-hand man, Ilgiz Shakirov, who was arrested in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan where the Ponzi scheme was based. Last November, Finiko’s mastermind offered to testify against 44 of his accomplices.
According to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Finiko members and leaders have attracted at least 5 billion rubles (over $80 million) to the pyramid, but the actual sum of losses is likely to be much higher. The money came from defrauded investors in Russia and several other countries in the former Soviet space, the EU countries Germany, Austria and Hungary, the United States and elsewhere.
Many of the victims were asked to send cryptocurrency to wallet addresses controlled by Finiko, a phantom entity. According to a report by forensic blockchain firm Chainalysis, the pyramid received more than $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin between December 2019 and August 2021. The coins were transferred in 800,000 deposits by people lured with promises of monthly returns of up to 30%.
Do you expect other arrests in the Finiko case? Let us know in the comments section below.
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