A pyramid was built on apartments in Moscow City
Private investors, who lost 123 million rubles, believe that they have become victims of another financial pyramid scheme. Moscow businessmen rented apartments in “MoscowCity” and rented them out to foreigners. The profit was the price difference.
Private investors from different regions of the country helped to give the business scope. Almost two hundred people invested more than 123 million rubles in the project, but in the end they lost a significant part of them. They went to courts with civil suits and won them, but so far they cannot return the money – their borrowers have been declared bankrupt. The property of businessmen Elena Dolotova and Yevgeny Abramov was arrested, and their activities may show signs of both illegal investment activities and fraud, lawyers say. Businessmen themselves explain what happened by changing market conditions.
Profit as a premonition
Private investors from different regions of the country believe that they have become victims of another financial pyramid scheme. They invested in subletting expensive apartments in “MoscowCity” at first at 36%, and then at 60% per annum, but in the end they were left with nothing. The victims said that for some time the owners of the business paid them interest, but in February 2022 this process stopped.
Investors often acted “pooled”: they gathered in “pools” of several people and transferred money to the founder of the project, “an experienced realtor” Elena Dolotova, under a loan agreement, the victims said (Izvestia has all agreements and payment receipts).
Commission impossible: prosecutors returned 100 million deceived by financial pyramids
How to borrow, make a profitable investment and at the same time protect yourself from scammers
Dolotova took apartments from the owners on a long-term lease, and rented them out short-term or by the day, earning on the difference in price. Later, she decided to “scale” the business – to attract investors to it. This idea, according to his own statement, was given to her by the Moscow economist Yevgeny Abramov. Subsequently, he became her partner and guarantor under loan agreements with investors. The couple worked in tandem and in two and a half years managed to attract 191 investors (Izvestia has the data in the summary table) and collected more than 123 million rubles from them.
Denis Okunev, a private investor from Samara, found out about the project from the Internet, where it was positioned as a “mega offer”. He entered into a loan agreement with Elena Dolotova for 1 million rubles in January 2022. Denis was attracted by the fact that other investors regularly received their payments. Moreover, in addition to interest, they gradually returned the body of the loan. However, already in February, the project participants were notified that “due to the difficult situation, payments are temporarily suspended.” More than a year has passed since then, but Denis has not returned his million.
“Now our main goal is to get the money back, and the second is to make sure that the organizers of this scheme are punished – administrative and criminal,” he told Izvestia.
– And when everything stopped in February, they (Elena Dolotova and Evgeny Abramov. – Izvestia) talked about the crisis, referred to the covid, then to the NWO. They promised to fix everything. And then they just stopped getting in touch,” said Ilya Morozov.
Elizaveta M. (the girl asked not to give her last name) from Moscow invested half a million rubles in the investment project, of which about 70 thousand rubles were returned to her.
— We were told that there would be a review of rates and an update to the paytable. And for those who are not ready to wait, they even offered to return the money. Many agreed to this, but nothing was returned to them, ”Elizaveta told Izvestia.
According to her, the previously record profit of 60% did not bother any of the depositors – everyone had “a common belief that everything in Moscow was put on stream.” Evgeny Abramov played a big role in the formation of this belief – absolutely all investors speak about his ability to attract people to him.
— Eugene spoke to us like a guru. I think that without his convincing phrases, we would never have entered this business, – Elizabeth admits.
Nothing to take
Aleksey S., another investor from Moscow, also speaks of the absence of suspicion and “a feeling of complete immersion in the reality of business” (the man also wished to remain anonymous). According to him, investors were not embarrassed by the remote nature of investments. In confirmation of the renting of the apartments, they were sent links to websites with ads, so there was no desire to go to Moscow and watch how the apartments were rented out, he clarified.
Alexey lost about 250 thousand rubles, but he is not sure that the project was a “financial pyramid”. The collapse could have objective reasons, he believes. Among them is the “global” outflow of foreigners from Moscow in February-March 2022. It was wealthy foreign tourists who made up the majority of tenants rented in “MoscowCity apartments, and when they left, the company had a sharp cash gap, suggests Alexey.
– Elena and Evgeny paid according to the lease agreement, but the clients did not visit them. And the contract with the owners was drawn up in such a way that the apartments could not be returned immediately – a penalty was due for this, – said Alexey.
Previously, such conditions with the owners probably did not look like a big risk for the authors of the scheme. But at the moment of force majeure, they themselves became hostages of the situation and made the rest of them, the man is trying to find reasonable arguments. He recalls how Dolotova and Abramov promised to switch to economy-class apartments and pull out the business. But in the end they disappeared.
Some investors went to court and won lawsuits. For some of them, enforcement proceedings have already been opened for the forced return of money, for others, proceedings are still ongoing. However, the bailiffs did not return a single penny to anyone: it turned out that both Elena Dolotova and Evgeny Abramov were declared bankrupt by the court and there was nothing on their accounts. This is evidenced by the data of the SPARK and FSSP databases of Russia.
“Apparently, they played it safe and withdrew all the money and property, reissuing it to relatives or friends,” suggested investor Alexei.
Hello from Argentina
Evgeny Abramov’s social networks have not been maintained for more than a year – just from the moment the payments were stopped. Although before that, he actively performed with motivational videos, urging viewers to invest in his projects. Abramov calls himself “a specialist in finance, stock market analysis, brokerage and dealer activities.”
His last post is dated January 18, 2022 – Eugene, lounging in an armchair in an expensive hotel with a window view reminiscent of the seascapes of Dubai, teaches viewers to earn on passive income.
However, the other day, a fresh story appeared on his Instagram (owned by the Meta organization, recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation) – Abramov, as if nothing had happened, travels around Argentina with his wife, studies vineyards and enjoys the good weather. Regrets about the collapsed business in Russia and apologies to investors could not be found in this video.
Izvestia contacted Evgeny by zoom – in an interview, he tried to distance himself from the project advertised by him in “MoscowCity” and stated that he did not see his fault in its collapse. He stressed that the money was paid to investors, but in February, “Dolotova’s business began to decline due to the current situation in the world.”
– They call me a fraudster only because I advised people to invest in Elena Dolotova’s business. After her disappearance, I partially paid money to some investors, although I was not obliged, ”he said.
The man denies his equity participation in the business – he assures that he himself “left” in “Moscow-City” 15 million rubles invested.
Izvestia also managed to find Elena Dolotova. Unlike her companion, she ended up in Moscow and looked dejected. Apparently, the realtor does not relieve himself of responsibility for the project and regrets that in February the market situation “ate” the accumulated capital and there was nothing to pay investors. However, instead of understanding, some investors went to court, while others began to threaten physical violence, she said. Now Elena is offended by investors and “does not want to resolve issues out of court.”
“I admit that people have suffered, but the business has existed for five years and all this time there have been no problems with payments,” she emphasized.
Abramov, according to her, stopped contacting her from November 2022. Although in several lawsuits from investors, he passes as a co-defendant.
Unrealistic returns
In order not to lose money, potential investors should pay attention to the contract and the conditions prescribed in it – are they realistic, investor Alexander Bystrov explained to Izvestia.
– In case of “Moscow-City” 5% per month looked quite realistic, but 60% per annum – such a yield is almost impossible to get on the market,” he said.
When they promise high interest, it means that the business has high risks. In order not to lose everything, the expert advises investing small amounts, which, if the project fails, will not hit the capital hard.
— It is better to pay attention to conservative, reliable and proven investment instruments. Realistic yield is 20-30% per annum. Anything over 30% carries potential risks,” the expert added.
Dolotova’s project, in his opinion, had the right to exist, but it could hardly bring guaranteed profitability.
The point of any financial pyramid scheme is to attract as many potential participants as possible, lawyer Alexander Treshchev told Izvestia. He noted that Yevgeny Abramov advertises operations with cryptocurrency in his networks and could well withdraw all the money collected from investors into it.
– Previously, in the Neva tower in “MoscowCity “was inhabited by bloggers, and now it is 70-80% full of crypto swindlers,” he noted.
A number of the victims told Izvestia that they were considering the possibility of filing a complaint with law enforcement agencies about the crime, so that a criminal case could be initiated on the fact of the loss of money by investors.
In the actions of Elena Dolotova and Yevgeny Abramov, signs of Art. 172. 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, when the attraction of funds from investors occurs in the absence of investment or other legal business activities, Alexander Treshchev emphasized. But this is in the event that it turns out that businessmen only pretended to sublease apartments, but in fact they simply collected money from people. And if there is intent, their actions can be qualified as fraud (Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the lawyer stated.
