In the United Arab Emirates, law enforcement officials have detained a senior Finiko representative who was wanted for his involvement in the crypto Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors worldwide. This is the second high-ranking member of the pyramid to be detained in the Gulf state in the previous month, according to news reports.
Fraudster Finiko Russia requests his extradition after Interpol catches him in the UAE.
Finiko, another person recently implicated in the planning of Russia’s biggest financial pyramid, has been detained in the UAE. Following news of the arrest of the co-founder of the Ponzi scheme, Zygmunt Zygmuntovich, last month, Edward Sabirov was detained in the Arab nation. Both are accused of having major roles in the theft of millions of dollars from the fraud’s victims.
According to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, Sabirov was added to a global wanted list on November 12th. His arrest was reported on November 30 by the United Arab Emirates National Interpol Bureau. The National Central Bureau of Interpol for Russia has already asked for a 60-day detention and stated that it intends to ask the UAE’s Ministry of Justice for the man’s extradition.
Marat Sabirov, another prominent representative of Finiko, is still wanted. Due to their close friendship with the crypto pyramid’s creator and brains behind it, Kirill Doronin, who has been imprisoned in Russia since July 2021, the Sabirovs were directly connected to its top management. They were able to escape Russia with Zygmuntovich as the plan wascollapsing
The headquarters of Finiko, which was never established as a legitimate organisation, were in Kazan, the nation’s capital. It operated branches in more than 70 additional Russian provinces and advertised investments in a virtual platform that offered astronomically high returns of up to 5% per day. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported earlier this year that it had received close to 10,000 applications from victims alleging losses in excess of 5 billion rubles, or about $80 million.
The true costs of Finiko’s actions, however, are probably much higher. Unaware investors in Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet states, as well as in EU countries like Germany, Austria, and Hungary, the United States, and elsewhere provided the Ponzi scheme with capital.
According to a report by Chainalysis, the pyramid received more than $1.5 billion in bitcoin between December 2019 and August 2021 from victims who were asked to send cryptocurrency to Finiko’s wallets.
More than 20 other people, in addition to Doronin, Zygmuntovich, and the Sabirovs, have been charged with participating in the extensive fraud. The names Lilia Nurieva, Dina Gabdullina, and Finiko Vice President Ilgiz Shakirov, who was detained in Tatarstan, are on the list. The executive director of Finiko, Anna Serikova, who goes by the alias Tiffany, was also detained.