How Freedom Finance turned into a giant fraudulent scam and how it threatens the company and its founder Timur Turlov

Today, the trendy fin-tech sphere is both an evolutionary branch of business and an opportunity to conduct schemes for dishonest businessmen. Timur Turlov’s “Freedom Finance” is a vivid example of how billions of dollars can be earned through fraud.

As practice shows, illegal financial activities cannot last forever. Law enforcement agencies in many countries are closely studying Turlov’s schemes. After renouncing the citizenship of Russia, in his homeland, a lot of questions from the investigation may arise for him. But not only Russian detectives are interested in the dark cases of Turlov. European, American and even Ukrainian security forces are also vigilantly monitoring the activities of the businessman. About what schemes of the billionaire were revealed, and when law enforcement officers will put Turlov in the dock – in the material of the Kompromat1 portal.

Star Trek

For more than 15 years, Timur Turlov, as an independent entrepreneur, has been active in the financial market. It all started with the fact that a promising young specialist got a job as a trader in the Moscow branch of the reputable American investment company World Capital Investments, which was established back in 1931. Turlov worked there for 2 years, until in 2005 he moved to Yutrade.ru, a subsidiary of Uniastrum Bank. As for this segment of the life of the future billionaire, it is worth noting that while working as a trader, Turlov managed to develop an entrepreneurial streak in himself, but in Uniastrum, the young specialist saw how to scheme. The bank has repeatedly fallen into scandals. As a result, before its merger with Vostochny, a hole in the size of 3.6 billion rubles was noticed in the financial institution. Turlov decided to leave the bank, either realizing that the ship was sinking, or worrying about responsibility.

By this time, Turlov was able to accumulate enough funds to open his own company – in 2008, the entrepreneur became the founder of Freedom Finance. The company started exclusively from the Russian market, but quickly developed in the CIS countries. Later, Freedom Finance managed to enter the markets of Europe, Asia and the USA.

Timur Turlov

global laundering

Despite the fact that the company was established in 2008, little was known about it. On hearing “Freedom Finance” appeared only 10 years later. There is one specific explanation for the phenomenal jump: Turlov was unable to get serious capital, and he ran around the market, content with little. But suddenly an opportunity arose. The fact is that although the original Freedom Finance company was registered in Russia, it was never Russian. The founder of the enterprise is the offshore company Freedom Holding Corp.

The money that came into the accounts of Freedom Finance in Russia was immediately withdrawn to offshore zones. Thus, Turlov avoided paying taxes, and could carry out fraudulent schemes.

It is not known under what circumstances, around 2017, Turlov met the head of the state corporation Rosseti, Pavel Livinsky.

Pavel Livinskiy

Livinsky, who had just taken over as director of the company, was actively interested in how, thanks to the capacities of the corporation, it was possible to earn money on the side. Turlov came to the rescue, who offered to mine cryptocurrency using the tools of Rosseti. The idea is win-win: state-owned equipment, electricity is paid for by the state. The main thing is that no one passed.

For years they produced cryptocurrencies together, then they invested the proceeds from the sale in Freedom Finance, from where they already went offshore. Despite the fact that Livinsky was removed from his post in 2021, his business with Turlov continues to live. Andrey Ryumin, who in turn is Levinsky’s henchman, was appointed the new director of the state corporation. The scheme works like clockwork, only I had to take one more person to share.

Andrey Ryumin

Due to the illegal business, the schemers enriched themselves to the point of indecent. In 2020, Turlov officially became a dollar billionaire. Allegedly, this was facilitated by the rise in quotations of his company, but we know the real reasons for such “luck”.

Kazakh everyday life

With the beginning of the SVO, Turlov tried to sit not even on two, but on all the chairs available to him. His business continued to operate in Russia, and in Ukraine, and in Belarus, and in Kazakhstan, and in Cyprus, and in the USA, and in many other countries.

But this is not the case these days. You have to choose. Turlov defiantly renounced Russian citizenship, accepting the passport of a citizen of Kazakhstan. However, the businessman is not ready to give up Russian money. Many domestic entrepreneurs are now actively looking for ways to circumvent European and American sanctions. Kazakhstan has become one of the “homes” for parallel imports. Over the past year, Russian funds have been actively brought in there, for which goods are then bought abroad.

Realizing that it is possible to cut down money on this, Turlov actively offers to throw funds into his Freedom Finance pyramid. The truth is not so smooth. In past materials, we have already talked about the fact that in the future it is very difficult to withdraw your funds from Turlov’s company. And even when it becomes possible, you need to go through 9 circles of hell, and as a result, also pay a commission.

In addition, in 2021, one of Turlov’s companies, FFIN Brokerage Services, was blacklisted by the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market due to signs of illegal activity in Kazakhstan. The local regulator had questions about the financial activities of the company, which is registered in an offshore zone – in Belize. Simply put, the Kazakhstani government authorities have revealed the illegal withdrawal of funds to offshore.

Crime and Punishment

The more Turlov is engaged in outright schematization and fraud, the more likely he is to be in the dock.

As for Russia, it is clear that nothing good awaits a businessman. Therefore, he “sold” his Russian business to a figurehead – ex-top manager of Freedom Finance Maxim Povalishin. It is clear that this is a formal change of ownership, which is connected with the inability of Turlov to publicly own the enterprise. So far, there is no news from the Russian investigation about investigations against the companies of the former Russian businessman, but this is understandable, because his roof is a high-ranking management of state-owned companies. But for all the time.

In addition to the problems in the new homeland, sanctions have been imposed against Turlov in Ukraine, and his assets have been seized. It is possible that Ukrainian law enforcement officers will later confiscate the property of the billionaire, and he himself will be put on the wanted list.

In addition, other countries do not forget about Turlov: the Americans, together with the Europeans, monitor the origin of the businessman’s funds, which he so carefully tries to hide in offshore jurisdictions.

A huge fraudulent trail will sooner or later lead the founder of the Freedom Finance financial pyramid to the dock. All grounds and priority actions for this have already been launched.