In Volgograd, a pensioner organized a financial pyramid worth ₽1 billion

A pensioner from Volgograd and four of her accomplices organized a financial pyramid and, since 2022, have illegally issued loans to citizens totaling about 1 billion rubles. All defendants were detained on suspicion of illegal banking activities, official representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs Irina Volk reported in her TELEGRAM channel.

As Volk explained, the organizer of the group was a 68-year-old local resident, and four of her friends were looking for citizens who wanted to get loans from banks. The criminals took half of the loan amount for themselves, promising to repay the debt to credit institutions. At the same time, payment under the agreements was made from funds received from loans issued to other citizens in the future.

“During the first months, the defendants independently made payments on behalf of clients, in some cases even completely repaying their obligations. Subsequently, citizens took out loans again, and the pattern was repeated. According to preliminary estimates, from 2022 to the present time, the accomplices have attracted about 1 billion rubles,” said a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

All suspects were detained, and a criminal case was initiated against them under Part 2 of Art. 172 of the Criminal Code of RUSSIA (carrying out banking activities without registration or without special permission; up to seven years in prison). During 28 searches, almost 30 million rubles, rough notes, computer equipment, loan agreements, as well as 13 expensive vehicles were confiscated from the defendants.

In January 2023, the lawyers of 81-year-old Margarita Butakova, who helped her son-in-law, former State Duma deputy from the A Just Russia party Vadim Belousov, obtain a BRIBE of 3.253 billion rubles, managed to convince the judges that she could not fully defend herself in COURT because of old age and the consequences of covid-19 . Before that, she was sentenced to four years probation. The court ordered a second psychiatric examination for her.

According to investigators, from 2010 to 2014, Belousov and Butakova, together with the ex-governor of the Chelyabinsk region Mikhail Yurevich and others, received a bribe from a road construction holding company for patronage in the distribution of government orders for road maintenance totaling more than 3 billion rubles. Yurevich was put on the international wanted list, and Belousov disappeared before his sentencing. He did not admit guilt. As a result, in May the court declared Butakova sane.