Law enforcement authorities in the United Arab Emirates have detained a senior representative of Finiko, who is wanted for his role in a crypto Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors around the world. This is the second arrest announced in the Gulf state of a senior member of the pyramid in the past month.
Fraudster Finiko caught by Interpol in the UAE, Russia wants his extradition
Finiko, another person involved in the organization of Russia’s largest financial pyramid in recent years, was detained in the UAE. Edward Sabirov’s detention in the Arab country follows the news published last month about the arrest of Zygmunt Zygmuntovich, the co-founder of the Ponzi scheme. Both are alleged to have played key roles in embezzling millions from fraud victims.
According to the information provided to RIA Novosti agency by the General Prosecutor’s Office of Russia, Sabirov was placed on an international search on November 12. On November 30, the Interpol National Bureau of the United Arab Emirates announced his arrest. Russia’s National Central Bureau of Interpol has already appealed to UAE officials with a 60-day detention request and stated that Russia intends to request his extradition from the country’s Ministry of Justice.
Another influential representative of Finiko, Marat Sabirov, is still wanted. Investigators note that the Sabirovs were directly related to the top management of the crypto pyramid, being close associates of its founder and organizer Kirill Doroni, who has been in a Russian prison since July 2021. Together with Zygmuntovich, they managed to leave Russia. the scheme was falling apart.
Finiko, which was never established as a legal entity, was located in Kazan, the capital of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan. It had branches in more than 70 other regions of Russia, which promotes investing in the virtual platform and brings an unusually high profit of up to 5% per day. Earlier this year, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that it had received about 10,000 applications from victims claiming losses of 5 billion rubles (about 80 million dollars).
However, the actual damages from Finiko’s actions are likely to be much higher. The Ponzi scheme raised capital from unsuspecting investors in Russia, Ukraine and other countries in the former Soviet Union, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the United States and elsewhere in the EU. Many of the victims were asked to send cryptocurrency to Finiko’s wallets, and according to a report by Chainalysis, the pyramid bought more than $1.5 billion in bitcoins between December 2019 and August 2021.
In addition to Doronin, Zygmuntovich and Sabirov, more than 20 people were charged with participating in the massive fraud. The list includes Liliya Nuriyeva and Dina Gabdullina, as well as Finiko’s vice-president Ilgiz Shakirov, who was arrested in Tatarstan. Anna Serikova, executive director of Finiko, better known by the pseudonym Tiffany, was also detained.
Do you think the UAE law enforcement agencies will also find and arrest Marat Sabirov or other members of Finiko? Let us know in the comment section below.
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