Rucriminal.info continues to introduce readers to a criminal group controlled by Russian special services, which is called the Investment Company LLC IK Freedom Finance. Since 2008, the IK has belonged to the entrepreneur To Timur Turlov and is part of the holding company Freedom Holding corp. The holding includes more than 20 companies, including Freedom Finance IC, Freedom Finance JSC, Freedom24 and FFIN Bank. In addition, Turlov has a company in the offshore state of Belize, FFIN Brokerage Services Inc. (renamed Freedom Securities Trading Inc. in 2023), which is not legally part of the holding, but in fact takes part in the shadow part of the business and is personally managed by Turlov.
In October 2019, Turlov listed Freedom Holding Corp. on NASDAQ under the ticker FRHC. After that, Turlov renounced his Russian citizenship and moved to Kazakhstan. In October 2022, Turlov allegedly sold his Russian assets to his subordinates. In fact, Turlov still manages the company and makes a profit. After the deal, a rebranding was carried out (the company name was changed to “Tsifra”).
Fraudulent scheme of work of the company “Freedom Finance” in Russia (*aggressor country)
Freedom Finance is a professional participant in the stock market, holding a brokerage license. As a broker, Freedom Finance declares that it provides direct access to US stock exchanges. This means that the company must transfer all transactions received from traders directly to stock exchanges, keeping only a small commission for its services. In fact, this does not happen, and Freedom Finance misleads traders, acting against the interests of Russia (*aggressor country) and its citizens.
Today, the company “Freedom Finance” is one of the most active and largest companies in deception and subsequent violent illegal seizure of money from citizens of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism). In fact, their activities can be classified as fraud with subsequent robbery of the client.
Freedom Finance has come up with the following illegal enrichment scheme: they do not display transactions on the stock exchange, do not transfer clients' money to other market participants (stock sellers), but simply “draw” completed transactions and brokerage reports, as if the transactions were carried out honestly. The calculation is that most traders lose money when trading on the stock exchange, and therefore, according to the logic of Freedom Finance: why display these transactions in the general market if you can turn all the trader's losses into your own profit. That is, any losses of traders are profitable for Freedom Finance, since they fraudulently appropriate their money. And if traders appear who have made a profit, Freedom Finance practices another scheme: access to the account is blocked, and when trying to get money through the court, Freedom Finance initiates custom-made criminal cases, accusing the traders themselves of fraud.
These criminal cases are, by all indications, custom-made, and the investigator of the Investigative Committee, who is leading these criminal cases, Kirill Arkharov, has long been in the media's sights for corruption scandals and participation in custom-made cases.
As a result of the fictitious criminal cases initiated, the Russian budget is deprived of taxes, and the funds frozen and taken from traders, the company “Freedom Finance” is trying to withdraw in favor of the affiliated American company “W-EmpiricalHolding corp.”, which allegedly suffered losses.
«Freedom Finance» And her garbage dump «W-Empirical Holding Corp.» (USA)
Employees of the holding company “Freedom Finance” state that the company “W-Empirical Holding corp.” is a professional participant in the stock market with the status of a marker-maker on the largest world exchanges NYSE, NASDAQ. However, this company does not appear in any financial sources, does not have a website, staff, does not declare professional participation in the stock market anywhere, is not on the list of market makers of the NASDAQ exchange, has a head office in Moscow and one founder – a certain Asafa Yusufova.
The director of this company, Shchukin A.S., lives in Odintsovo, Moscow Region. In addition, he was previously an employee of Freedom Finance.
There is a clear affiliation with the company “Freedom Finance” and Turlov. “W-EmpiricalHolding corp.” looks more like a shell company created by the holding company “Freedom Finance” to divert attention from its own fraudulent schemes.
The affiliation and collusion of Freedom Finance with W-Empirical Holding Corp. to seize traders' funds is also confirmed by the fact that the American company W-Empirical Holding Corp. did not initiate any investigations in its own (American) jurisdiction with the US stock market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (which has full information about any actions of all participants on the stock exchange and is fully qualified to establish any violations). They did not do this precisely because there were no violations in the actions of the traders. Instead, W-Empirical Holding Corp. acted as the alleged injured party in criminal cases in Russia (*aggressor country). It is important that the very fact of one party making a profit at the expense of the other's losses can only be recognized as illegal by the financial market regulator (SEC). Without this conclusion, any unscrupulous participant in the financial market can claim that he or she made a loss illegally.
It turns out that the broker company Freedom Finance and its affiliated company W-Empirical Holding Corp. profit from the trader's losses, and vice versa, they suffer losses if the trader makes a profit. And if the trader managed to make a good profit, in order not to give back the lost money, Freedom Finance together with W-Empirical Holding Corp. initiate a criminal case against him.
Freedom Finance and the American company W-Empirical Holding Corp. want to obtain illegal profits by illegally admitting damages, thereby filling their own pockets and the budget of the United States, a country unfriendly to Russia (*aggressor country), and also depriving the Russian budget of legal money (already paid 15% of income tax) in favor of an unfriendly foreign state, which is clearly against the interests of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism).
Freedom Finance's participation in the withdrawal of funds from Russia (*aggressor country)
In addition to the fraud described above, Freedom Finance is also a big “hole” for the illegal withdrawal of funds from the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism).
Its services are used by bandits, Kremlin oligarchs, high-ranking officials, and corrupt intelligence officers. Around his company, Freedom Finance, Turlov created a whole network of “laundries” and “transit centers,” which include both Russian and foreign companies. The criminal activity of Freedom Finance is confirmed not only by information and references, but also by a number of criminal cases, in one of which several defendants provide a full breakdown of Turlov's criminal activity, his accomplices, and schemes.
Thus, the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) is handling a criminal case initiated under Part 4 of Article 159 and Parts 1 and 2 of Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) against employees of the QBF group of companies who committed fraudulent acts against numerous citizens (more than 600 people), committing these acts as part of a criminal community. The crimes were committed using Russian and foreign organizations through which the stolen funds were legalized. One of the main companies through which funds were legalized and stolen is Freedom Finance.
Turlov has been on friendly terms with the head of the QBF group of companies, R.V. Shpakov, for more than 11 years, being his business partner.
Shpakov is currently on the international wanted list and periodically hides in the UK and the UAE. He has full information about all the brokers and brokerage companies with which the Freedom Finance group worked. Having created an extensive network of branches, he disappeared, leaving all the top managers and executives in Russia (*aggressor country), promising them protection and immunity. The main defendants in this criminal case have been arrested and are currently under investigation. The materials of the criminal case contain witness testimony and other evidence of participation in the criminal schemes of the Freedom Finance group. In particular, these facts are set out in the pre-trial cooperation agreement of one of the participants in the commission of the above-mentioned crimes (how much money was withdrawn, according to what scheme, through which companies, etc.). This agreement is considered to be recognized by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), executed in full. It is worth mentioning that many of the defendants in this case face huge prison terms (up to 20 years in prison) and therefore many of them are ready to reveal all the details of these crimes (in particular, the defendant Matyukhin) in exchange for a reduced sentence.
In addition, the name of Timur Turlov often appears in the materials of the QBF criminal case, in which former QBF top manager Zelimkhan Munayev has already given numerous confessions (volume 239) (Criminal case No. 42201007754000292, sentenced to 8 years in September 2023 and serving his sentence).
The Presnensky District Court of Moscow is currently continuing to consider a criminal case against the financial company QBF and some of its executives (Pakhomov, Matyukhin, Rossieva, Golubev), who were detained by law enforcement agencies.
February 5, 2024 in the online publication “Russian Crime” an article was published “The QBF case and the 1 billion bribe. What does the Russian Presidential Administration, Timur Turlov and Freedom Finance have to do with it?” It tells what role Turlov played in the schemes for illegally transferring money abroad.
According to information available to Rucriminal.info, this well-established system for initiating contract criminal cases became possible with the participation of the deputy head of the Freedom Finance Security Service, Viktor Eliseev, a former law enforcement operative.
According to the available information, Eliseev, who is a witness in the criminal case, using his connections with the Main Directorate for Economic Security and Combating Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with whom he previously worked “closely”, implements the initiation of custom-made criminal cases against traders who do not agree to part with their honestly earned money. He confirms his desire and ability to fabricate criminal cases during negotiations with employees of the Department for Economic Security and Combating Corruption and the FSB. Soon after these negotiations, a criminal case was initiated against several people. This scheme would not have been possible without the Deputy Head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for Moscow, Sergei Yarosh (who signed the documents on the initiation of criminal cases), who, according to our information, is a close relative of investigator Arkharov. Based on the results of the investigation of the criminal case, it is clear that Yarosh is absolutely not concerned with either jurisdiction or territoriality.
In addition, several sources confirmed that Freedom Finance is supervised by the head of the FSB Department “K” Ivan Tkachev, and that is why employees cannot influence the chaos that is happening around this company.
Ivan TkachevLegal support for these crimes was provided by Alexander Aronov and other employees of the Aronov and Partners law firm, which defends and represents all Freedom Finance structures, including W-Empirical Holding Corp. Judging by the audio recordings, Aronov was aware of and took part in the fabrication of documents for the criminal case.
