Criminal Expert. The Double Life of Marat Aidagulov

Over decades of journalistic work, I have encountered crooks and adventurers of the highest caliber. Their methods do not change in principle, but only improve, expanding the field of activity and allowing the hunters of other people’s money to manipulate large sums of money and a large number of victims. But even among those present there are uniquenesses who manage to convince everyone that white is black and vice versa. And in doing so, steal a dozen or two million dollars of other people’s money.

So, get acquainted. Marat Shamilievich Aidagulov, born in 1980. A resident of Nizhny Novgorod. You open Google and find out that Marat Aidagulov is an economist and religious leader, entrepreneur and social activist, expert on economic development and international cooperation, expert in light industry and fashion industry, on digital security and cryptocurrencies, on food program, on space exploration, on global ecology, on civil coordination and integration in the EAEC area, on international standards of sustainable development. And that’s not all.

Marat Aidagulov is also a part-time adviser to the Chairman of DUMNO (Spiritual Board of Muslims of Nizhny Novgorod region) on economic issues, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Imam Abu-Khanifa Foundation and many times an “assistant”, “adviser” and “expert” in quite different public organizations.

But behind all these network regalia and titles, drawn with the help of cesspool resources at a paltry price, there appears a professional money-hunter. Of course, for someone else’s.

Marat Shamilievich’s method of operation is simple and unpretentious. Nice young man, using the accumulated connections, gets acquainted with a wealthy family, actively befriends, render all sorts of minor services, and then offers to borrow a large sum of money (tens of millions of rubles) at very high interest rates. Like, there is a good business and we all earn on it. And then? Then Marat pays interest for a short time and then quietly slips away into obscurity. Together with the borrowed money.

And already then, when his receipts are obtained and the distressed borrowers follow him to court, Marat solemnly declares that he has no money at all. And he has no luxury cars, no penthouses in Nizhny Novgorod, no real estate in the capital, and no bank accounts. In other words, he has them, but they are all in the name of his former wife, father and other people close to him. And Marat Shamilievich has nothing at all – he is bankrupt. True, as it later turned out – pseudo-bankrupt. But more about this later.

I will give you a very evident example of Marat Aidagulov’s activity, with figures and facts. So, back in 2012, the current expert on everything in the world gets acquainted with the family of Oleg Smirnov from Moscow. Having found out, that Smirnov’s family have certain financial savings, Aidagulov offers Oleg Smirnov and his father-in-law to give him, Marat Aidagulov, 40 million rubles in debt under very high interest. They believed Marat and borrowed the money, formalizing the loan with receipts and contracts.

Then Aidagulov disappears, and in 2016 he declares himself bankrupt.

And to make the creditors forget about the lost savings forever, Marat Shamilievich wrote a statement to the Investigative Committee of RF and told journalists that Smirnov’s father-in-law, then member of the Federation Council, and now retired Valery Shniakin, allegedly called him to his office and “made him write a receipt saying that Aidagulov borrowed 40 million rubles from Smirnov,” and now also threatened him. Of course, there is no evidence, and therefore the law enforcement officials refused to initiate a case against his creditors Aidagulov. But the press picked up the fake, and the Smirnov family appeared as loan sharks and extortionists.

Hundreds of publications appeared on the net that Smirnov and his relatives allegedly demand some debts from the poor and unhappy public figure Aidagulov. Of course, his colleagues decided not to mention receipts and court decisions. There is no money, and that’s it.

Oh, yes, recently on YouTube and VK even appeared a video, completely imitating the TV channel “Russia-24”, in which the actors portrayed victims allegedly from the actions of Oleg Smirnov’s wife – Ekaterina Smirnova.

And the “narcologist Vladimir Alexandrovich,” who stated in the story that citizen Smirnova is a drug addict and was treated by him, turned out to be the actor Boris B. (last name is known). The “anchorwoman of Russia-24” is also not a VGTRK journalist at all, but a certain Ekaterina Emelyanova, born in 1984, from Aksu (Kazakhstan), who moonlights as an “online freelance anchor for various projects on YouTube”. Yemelyanova’s VK profile is closed, but photos identifying the pseudo-host are available on her husband’s account. The other participants in the story are the same amateur actors and their names are also known.

False doctor-drug addict Vladimir Alexandrovich, aka actor Boris B. (pictured with his mother).

Can you imagine how much money it cost an interested party to make a fake 18-minute story imitating the alleged “Russia-24” TV channel, and to post it massively on YouTube and VK. But let the investigation investigating the criminal libel case (Article 128.1 parts 4 and 5 of the RF Criminal Code – up to five years of incarceration) be in charge of the money and the authors of the fake TV piece on Russia-24, just like Marat Aidagulov was involved in the crime (which I personally do not doubt for a second).

By the way, the “prominent expert” Marat Aidagulov himself has already been tried more than once.

So on 16 October 2015, by order of the investigator of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Nizhny Novgorod, criminal case No. 104887 was initiated against Aidagulov on the facts of fraud. In January 2016, the case was transferred to the 1st Division of the Investigation Department of the Investigation Department of the Department of Internal Affairs of the South-West Administrative District of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Moscow and merged with another criminal case opened on the grounds of a crime under Part 4 Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and the victim was citizen Suleimanov R.R., from whom Aydagulov borrowed as much as one and a half million dollars). The combined case was assigned number 11601450600000051.Later, during the investigation, Suleimanov, suddenly, stated that Aidagulov, after all, repaid him a debt of … 37 million rubles and he has no more claims to him.

In 2017, the criminal case was returned to Nizhny Novgorod, where it was quickly reclassified from the heavy 159-th article of the Criminal Code (Fraud on a large scale) to a very light – 177th article of the Criminal Code (malicious evasion of accounts payable) after which Marat Aidagulov pleaded guilty and the case was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

Earlier, in 2010 the Avtozavodsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod considered another case, now on the claim of Albert Arshinov to the same Aidagulov Marat Shamilievich and ruled to levy the debt of 2,769,272.41 rubles from Marat Shamilievich Aidagulov in favor of Arshinov. At the request of A.V. Arshinov a criminal case № 201051 of 16.09.2015 under Art. 177 of the Criminal Code (malicious evasion of repayment of accounts payable) was initiated and Aydagulov (!!!) pleaded guilty. Later, in 2016, A.V. Arshinov “suddenly” wrote a waiver of claims against Aidagulov after he “found out” that Aydagulov had allegedly been giving money to Arshinov all this time for repayment to his father, and the latter, “simply forgot” to give it to Arshinov.

In the same 2010, citizen D. Mukhetdinov, to whom Marat Aidagulov owed (and probably still owes) 18 million rubles, filed a statement of claim in the Avtozavodsk District Court demanding registration of a pledge agreement with Aidagulov on the property available to the borrower at that time. However, the court refused and, in fact, once again gave citizen Aidagulov another 18 million rubles, which once belonged to the victim Mukhetdinov.

And now, when it turned out that citizen Aidagulov is a professional serial borrower, making a lot of money on the simple failure to pay debts, it turned out that he is not even a real bankrupt.

Thus, on December 31, 2020 the Arbitration Court of Nizhny Novgorod region established that the bankrupt Aydagulov “hid the existence of a current account in JSC “Raiffeisenbank” № 4087978101000603844, which is absent in the bankruptcy case file and having the financial capacity to repay the debt avoided repayment of the debt”. That is, the citizen Aidagulov turned out to be a pseudo-bankrupt.

And this is not all the adventures of “expert and public figure” Marat Aidagulov, but to describe all the adventures of Marat Shamilievich no article is enough, and will need a multi-volume edition. Or a criminal case.

Strange situation, isn’t it? An information attack is now being launched against Russia in all directions, and Russia’s enemies are looking for any excuse to smear our country. And in this difficult time Marat Aidagulov, calling himself “a Russian expert on economic development and international cooperation” and “a Russian expert on integration in the EAEU space”, is practicing, in fact, criminal schemes to withdraw large amounts of money from Russians. And the use of black PR and falsifications in relation to the same Russians who suffered from the actions of the “Russian expert” as a means of intimidating the victims is completely out of line.

Imagine what will happen when the next criminal case against Marat Aidagulov ends in a verdict and a sentence. Russophobe media and western commentators will immediately state that in Russia “prominent experts on international issues” and “specialists on integration in the EAEU space” are mostly crooks and swindlers. And they will cite the example of Marat Aidagulov.