As it became known to BUSINESS Online, the Kazan pre-trial detention center was replenished with two defendants – the “platinum directors” of the well-known financial pyramid Frendex. They are suspected of a particularly large-scale fraud, as well as the two hidden co-founders of the pyramid Ruslan Pichugin and Dmitry Chechulin.
This is the first after Finiko the case when the security forces pay attention to the barkers in the pyramids. However, the main “stars” have not yet been caught: the trinity TabrizTeam, known to the investors of the republic, has been put on the wanted list, they are in Turkey. More details in the material “BUSINESS Online”.
How Frendex worked
Frendex opened in 2017 and positioned itself as a “closed investment club”. After the start of the pandemic, in 2020, the management, represented by founder Ruslan Pichugin, changed the format of the project. They played on those who lost their jobs and lost a stable income during the lockdown.
The founder of the platform claimed that she earns through stock trading in the stock and currency markets, and then the company began to be “active” in the real estate sector. Then came the cryptocurrency and investments in startups. The company offered its partners up to 2% of income per day, and Frendex promised a profit of 30-70% per week.
On August 9, 2021, the founder of the pyramid, Pichugin, announced its closure in Russia with the wording: they say that the company’s chief trader Chechulin broke his arms and can no longer trade. “For regulatory reasons, we can no longer continue to work in your country,” the founder of Frendex also added. Depositors were promised to return the money by October 2021, they even offered to fill out special forms indicating their bitcoin wallets. As a result, people did not receive their money either in October or six months later.
On Wednesday, an investigator of the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Tatarstan applied to the Vakhitovsky court with a request for the arrest of two defendants in the case. Trishakov, who was among the suspects, is 45 years old, he graduated from the Kazan Construction College, and officially does not work anywhere. On the Internet, you can find his page on the site with the offer of repair services. Before Frendex promoted a company that allegedly sold health products, and after the pyramid scam, he began to promote another project.
The second person arrested is 29-year-old Nasybullin. “In the company from the first days, not married,” the banner behind him said during a speech at one of the Frendex presentations. On his page on the social network VKontakte, he calls himself an entrepreneur. In the same place, the man published photos in the car, in an apartment with panoramic windows, in the office, accompanying them with various motivational stories. His first entry relating to “business” – with a proposal to become his student. “By investing from just $100, you will no longer be able to say that in this country it is impossible to become successful in an honest way,” Nasybullin wrote (the author’s spelling is preserved – ed. note). However, he deleted all entries related to Frendex: they are still visible in the search bar, but do not open.
What about the criminal case and where are the founders of Frendex
A criminal case against the founder of the Pichugin pyramid was opened on October 18, 2021. He was accused of fraud on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159). The amount of damage, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Tatarstan, is 200 million rubles. His main partner and co-founder of the pyramid, Chechulin, began to appear in the case as a defendant four months later, on February 14, 2022. On the same day he was put on the wanted list. The official wording of the investigation is as follows: Pichugin and Chechulin, “acting with unidentified persons, having the intent to steal property, by spreading false information about high incomes on the Frendex platform from May 2020 to August 2021, stole depositors’ funds on an especially large scale.”
They are put on the wanted list and are hiding abroad. Earlier it became known that Chechulin was detained in Italy, and then released on bail. An extradition trial awaits him soon. There is no information about Pichugin’s whereabouts.
In April 2021, Nasybullin, together with Frendex co-founder Chechulin, presented the pyramid on the stage of the Riviera Hermitage in Kazan.
As BUSINESS Online was informed by the press service of the Vakhitovsky court, Trishakov and Nasybullin were placed under arrest until November 12. They are charged with Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Fraud on an especially large scale”), under this article they face up to 10 years in prison.
Kommersant.Ru, 09/16/2022, “The pyramid was demolished”: According to the investigation, from May 2020 to August 2021, Alexei Trishakov and Azat Nasibullin, being in the territory of Tatarstan and other regions of Russia, “having the intent to steal the property of an indefinite circle of persons”, disseminated false information about the highly profitable financial activities of the Frendex platform they created . […]
The pyramid stopped operations on August 9, 2021, referring to the decision of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which included Frendex Europe OU in the list of organizations with signs of illegal activity in the financial market. The company promised to return the funds to depositors in “equal payments” from October 16 last year and asked them to provide Bitcoin wallets to organize the return. A few days later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tatarstan began to receive applications from victims of the organization’s activities. — Inset K.ru
In addition, 20 land plots were arrested in the case, 12 of which are in the Rybno-Sloboda district of Tatarstan, the remaining 8 are in the Moscow region. Arrests were placed on the apartments and houses of the defendants in Moscow, the Moscow region, Chelyabinsk and in Kazan, on the Orenburg tract. And investigators also arrested accounts with a limit of 200 million rubles. It should be noted that, according to the latest data, the damage in the Frendex case exceeded 200 million rubles, applications were received from 300 victims.
The Madiyarov and Akhtyamov couple, judging by their Instagram pages (owned by Meta, whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned in Russia – ed.), have been in Turkey since at least February 2022. There, Madiyarova conducts online bachata lessons, helps her subscribers “uncover the formula of the soul” and understand “destiny”, and also promotes her Tabrizovna club for women, a paid online course that teaches girls to become Cinderella from a housewife.
Madiyarova studied at KFU, worked for TNV for 7 years, then became a wedding registrar, and then went into the network business. As Madiyarova tells about herself on the social network, she began working there in 2018, initially at City Life, in which the Central Bank found signs of a financial pyramid. Then she “pulled” her husband behind her. At the same time, according to her, TabrizTeam appeared – the father, daughter and her husband worked together, attracted new people to the network business. In 2019, the family bought a Porsche for cash, Madiyarova boasted, and she herself began to earn 400 thousand rubles a month. The family couple was among the top leaders: they were invited to perform in various cities of Russia, the company paid for their holidays in Bali, Madiyarova said. In 2020, she called the TabrizTeam brand a “heritage” or “part of spiritual culture” and was proud of her earnings of already 1.4 million rubles a month, being the “top 5 company”. This is where Madiyarov interrupts the stories about his path in the network business – apparently, all publications mentioning Frendex were prudently deleted.
According to Madiyarova, she lost her team three times in the network business, and City Life allegedly happened the same way: they say, she left the company due to a conflict between the founders. Madiyarova left the only hint of Frendex in one of her publications: “We invested a very decent amount from the sale of Porsche in investments. They wanted to make money. Because they’ve heard another similar company doing well. But we lost even more … ”After that, according to her, she delved into psychology, self-knowledge and therefore began to conduct online courses for women.
Her father, Tabriz Akhtyamov, also actively maintains a page on the social network. “In the past, a teacher, investigator, owner of a jewelry store and leader of MLM,” he wrote about himself in his profile. A referral link for registration is also left there – similar “referrals”, in particular, are used for registrations in financial pyramids and other “fraudulent projects”. The link leads to the website of the law firm, which offers to become its partner and receive passive income of $1.5 thousand “from the very first months”.
During the time of their active “PR” Frendex, Madiyarova herself represented her father as a former policeman, her husband as a commando: the family aroused confidence among ordinary people. Madiyarova rose to the status of Frendex Group Regional Development Director. After the Frendex scam, the family disappeared from social media for a while. But, as was said, she returned and shows her life – from Turkey.
