Finiko co-founder and senior representative Zygmunt Zygmuntovich has reportedly been arrested in the United Arab Emirates. Finiko is arguably the largest Ponzi scheme in Russia since MMM (Russian Ponzi Scheme Company) in the 1990s. The Russian prosecutor General's office has confirmed the arrest.

Zygmunt Zygmuntovich, a 24-year-old German national, has been held in a prison in the Gulf state since early September. Russian prosecutors said they were informed of Zygmuntovich's detention by the local international criminal police. Russia has submitted an extradition request to the country's Justice ministry, which is currently being considered by the competent authorities in ABU Dhabi.

Zygmuntovich was placed on an international wanted list as part of a criminal investigation into Finiko by Russian law enforcement, along with two other associates of Finiko founder Kirill Doronin, Marat Sabirov and Edward Sabirov, The latter has been in prison since July 2021. The three managed to leave Russia when Finiko went bankrupt.

The whereabouts of the Sabirovs are unknown, and the exact circumstances of Zygmuntovich's arrest are unclear. But sources familiar with the matter said two of Zygmuntovich's former partners may have tipped off security forces to his location.

The defendants in the criminal case are 22 other people, including senior promoters of Finiko. Among the men were two women, LiliaNurieva and Dina Gabdullina, as well as Ilgiz Shakirov, Finiko's vice president and Doronin's right-hand man, 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 associates.

According to the Russian Interior Ministry, Finiko members and executives defrauded at least 5 billion rubles (more than $80 million), but the actual total loss is likely much higher. The money came from defrauded investors in Russia and several other countries in the former Soviet Union, in the European Union countries of Germany, Austria and Hungary, in the United States and elsewhere.

Many of the victims were asked to send cryptocurrencies to wallet addresses controlled by Finiko, a fake entity. According to a report by blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis, Finiko received more than $1.5 billion worth of bitcoins between December 2019 and August 2021. The currency was taken in the form of 800,000 deposits, with the scammers promising monthly returns of up to 30%.

Source: FX110