FIASCO OF FINIKO: FINANCIAL PYRAMID COLLECTED BILLIONS OF RUBLES AND CUT OFF PAYMENTS

A company operating in Russia since 2019, attracting savings of citizens at 20-30% per year, has refused to make payments since mid-July. The founder of the organization, Kirill Doronin, is currently under arrest in Kazan.

It all started with the fact that Cyfron FNK LTD was registered in the offshore zone of Saint Lucia. According to offshore legislation, this requires only an annual payment of $ 300. In Russia and other countries of the former USSR, the company operated under the Finiko brand, offering miraculous profit automation technology, based on risk prediction and analysis of ‘decentralized products’.

The beautiful words said by Kirill Doronin at meetings and on Instagram have convinced thousands of clients that the Finiko project promises a real profit.

Investors were not confused by the fact that the company was constantly changing domains on the Internet, subject to regular blocking, or the personal reputation of Doronin himself.

The opaque mechanism of ‘automatic generation’ of funds also raised no questions. The organizers insured themselves - there was no guarantee of safe earning during the period of using the system.

The company actively worked using referral programs and paying benefits to everyone who attracted new depositors. In addition to Doronin, the founders of the business were Zygmunt Zygmuntovich, Marat and Edward Sabirovs (ex-Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov even vouched for the latter's honesty). In Estonia, Doronin and Sabirov founded the Cyfron Capital firm, through which they received the right to exchange digital assets for real money (by now the firm no longer exists).

In December 2020, law enforcement agencies carried out a special operation at Finiko's offices. The company was suspected of causing damage in the amount of 70 million rubles (Article 172.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), although even then the experts stated that the project received about 7 billion from clients. As a result, the money was not found. At the same time, the absence of a license from the Central Bank of Russia did not prevent the organizers from continuing to collect funds from depositors.

Only on June 1, the regulator announced that the Finiko project has signs of a financial pyramid on its official website.

The first official statements from investors, who were deceived in their expectations, reached the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tatarstan only on July 19. In July, the investigation of the Finiko’s case began in Kazakhstan, where, according to the estimates of the prosecutor's office, 165 thousand residents could have become victims.

Experts warn that now depositors risk becoming victims of fraudsters, offering to quickly ‘recoup’ the invested funds or to win a case in court immediately after receiving an advance payment through their projects.

A number of media outlets have already paid attention to the fact that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of advertising for the first financial pyramid created by Sergei Mavrodi in Russia. At the same time, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation reports that in the first six months of 2020, it discovered 50% more financial pyramids in Russia than in the previous six months.