Crypto Pyramid Busted in Russia, Losses Exceed $10 Million – The organizers of a massive crypto pyramid that promised extremely high returns have been pursued by Russian law enforcement officials. After a similar plan duped hundreds of investors in Russia, and beyond, the Ponzi scheme is being investigated.
Officers from the Russian republic of Dagestan’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and Ministry of Internal Affairs have discovered individuals suspected of constructing a huge financial pyramid that promises victims earnings of up to 500 percent per year on digital assets investments.
According to reports cited by the Russian business daily Kommersant, the accused are members of the Yusra Global initiative. The fraudulent business maintained offices in other Russian regions, Kazakhstan in Central Asia, and Turkey, in addition to Dagestan.
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According to the publication, officials apprehended four people in January, all of them are Russian citizens, who are suspected of being behind the Ponzi scheme. They were initially placed under home arrest for two months. The accused might face a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, as well as substantial penalties.
Based on the investigation, the perpetrators of the fraud inflated quotes of digital asset prices and paid out dividends using funds deposited by new members in the pyramid.
Preliminary calculations, according to the Russian daily, suggest that the victims’ losses reach 1 billion rubles, or more than $10 million, according to the current currency rates.
The news of Yusra Global’s inquiry comes last year after Russian authorities busted possibly the country’s largest financial swindle since the infamous MMM pyramid in the 1990s.
Finiko, another Ponzi scheme that took advantage of the burgeoning popularity of cryptocurrencies, has been blamed for a total loss of up to $4 billion. Kirill Doronin, the company’s founder and a number of his associates were detained. Doronin is a social media influencer who has been tied to various scams in the past.
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Crypto Pyramid Busted in Russia – People from Ukraine, Russia, and other former Soviet republics, as well as EU member states and the United States, submitted 800,000 unique crypto deposits to the fake entity.
According to Chainalysis, the pyramid, which was situated in another Russian republic, Tatarstan, received almost $1.5 billion in bitcoin in less than two years.
