Petersburg, as part of the investigation of a high-profile criminal case of a financial pyramid operating under the guise of a consumer cooperative (PC) Best Way, several top managers of this organization were sent into custody.
Law enforcers believe that under the guise of investing in the purchase of apartments and the provision of financial services, members of an organized group could have stolen billions of rubles from investors since 2014. Roman Vasilenko, the founder of Best Way PC, who lives in London, is not yet a defendant in the investigation.
A criminal case on the fact of organizing activities to raise funds on an especially large scale (part 2 of article 172.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) was initiated by the Main Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region in October last year.
The basis was the results of inspections of the Central Bank and the Prosecutor General’s Office, which saw signs of a financial pyramid in the activities of Best Way.
Also, on the websites of the regulator and the supervisory agency, recommendations appeared for citizens to “be vigilant when investing personal savings” in this and affiliated structures.
After that, the first victims appeared, who announced the theft of large sums of money from them under the guise of improving their living conditions by the St. Petersburg cooperative “Best Way”. Roman Vasilenko, a 52-year-old businessman, is the founder of the organization operating in 17 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as Life is Good LLC affiliated with it and the Hermes investment company registered in Belize. A graduate of the Yaroslavl Higher Military Financial School, who now has, in addition to Russian citizenship of Cyprus and the Dominican Republic, as well as a residence permit in England, organized his business in 2014. Prior to this, Naval Reserve Officer Vasilenko received a business education under the MBA program for several years in Switzerland, the USA, Hungary and other countries.
Its main offspring – PC “Best Way” – is a kind of inexpensive alternative to mortgages. To join the cooperative, each client must make a non-refundable contribution in the amount of €1,000 to €2,000. Further, it was required to accumulate up to 35–50% of the cost of the selected apartment on the account in Best Way, and only after that the shareholder was put on the waiting list for the purchase of housing.
Thus, the apartment was given to the first person on the waiting list solely at the expense of the investments of subsequent shareholders.
At the same time, the ownership right was registered on Best Way and passed to the final owner only after the payment of the remaining amount. The attractiveness of this scheme, in the opinion of its authors and the clients themselves, was in much smaller overpayments compared to a mortgage. However, those recognized as victims in this case now say that the activity of Best Way actually consists only in the redistribution of money between shareholders.
The other day, according to Kommersant, the St. Petersburg police, together with colleagues from the GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs, as part of the investigation of this case, carried out investigative and operational activities in the city on the Neva.
As it turned out, even after the initiation of a criminal case, Best Way did not stop its work and continued to accept contributions from clients until February 15, 2022.
This circumstance somewhat facilitated the work of the operatives, since they managed to seize all the documentation and electronic media confirming the unlawful activities of the cooperative in the offices. For example, the investigation obtained data showing that over the seven years of its existence, the organization has collected more than 15 billion rubles from 20 thousand shareholders throughout the country. (about 3 billion rubles were found on the accounts). At the same time, at the end of 2021, only 247 people were able to fully buy out apartments from Best Way. In total, during its existence, the cooperative has transferred 2,478 apartments for use by shareholders. Moreover, those who moved into the housing transferred to Best Way, but did not have time to become its owner, are now under attack. Indeed, in the event of the company’s bankruptcy, the cooperative will remain the owner of more than 2,000 apartments.
It also follows from the seized documentation, testimonies of witnesses and victims that those who did not have enough money to purchase an apartment were encouraged to invest their savings in the Hermes investment company, promising a profit of up to 30% per annum and preferences when joining a cooperative and acquiring real estate. By the way, the Hermes offices in St. Petersburg were located at the same addresses as the Best Way PC.
Another result of the work of the police was the arrest of several top managers of the alleged financial pyramid.
At the request of the investigation, the Kuibyshevsky District Court of St. Petersburg sent Anna Vysotskaya, executive director of PC Best Way and Life is Good LLC, Elena Solovieva, chief accountant of Best Way, and Alexandra Grigorieva, director of Life is Good, to jail.
It should be noted that the other day the investigation reclassified the actions of the accused to fraud on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
As for Roman Vasilenko, he is not yet a defendant in the criminal case. However, if law enforcement officers have questions for him, then it is unlikely that they will be able to ask them. According to Kommersant, shortly before the initiation of a criminal case, Roman Vasilenko flew to London, where he owns real estate, including several shopping centers. The operatives also have information that a fairly large part of the property abroad is registered with the relatives of Mr. Vasilenko.
“Sneg”, 12/27/2021, “Shareholders may be left without apartments”: who may suffer in Tatarstan due to the problems of “Best Way”: […] Vasilenko actively leads social networks and a Youtube channel. He has almost 80,000 followers on Instagram. Vasilenko regularly tells them about harmful attitudes, about the right goals, etc. In a word – about successful success. He recently presented his own book. It’s called “Success Hunter”. On the cover, of course, Vasilenko himself. The head of “Best Way” diligently creates the image of a philanthropist and a noble businessman who is trying to help people.
It is known about Roman Vasilenko that he was a military man, received an economic education. A few years ago he gave an interview to a journalist Vladimir Solovyov. In it, the head of Best Way says that at first he himself participated in network marketing. Then he got the idea to create his own company that does the same.
“I attached cooperation to network marketing,” says Vasilenko. According to him, a shareholder can earn money for an apartment by attracting other shareholders. A minimum of 240 euros is paid for each attracted shareholder. In fact, Vasilenko himself does not hide the fact that Best Way is a pyramid scheme. […]
Roman Vasilenko in an interview with Solovyov saysthat he is ready to answer personally if the company suddenly goes to the bottom. True, so far he has not officially commented on either the blocking of the site at the initiative of the Central Bank, or the criminal case. Vasilenko himself, his companies and followers seem open and public. There are also open sites, and pages in social networks, and channels on Youtube. But there is practically no open communication on these platforms. On the websites of companies, an outsider cannot find not only financial statements, but even a contact phone number. — Inset K.ru
chelny-biz.ru, 12/20/2021, “Best Way demands to be excluded from the list of “financial pyramids”: Interregional consumer cooperative “Best Way” (Best Way) decided to sue the Central Bank of Russia, demanding to be excluded from the list of “financial pyramids”. The lawsuit was filed with the Moscow Arbitration Court. After the Central Bank announced that Best Way had signs of a pyramid, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office took over the organization. A criminal case immediately followed, the cooperative’s website was blocked.
Shareholders, meanwhile, created an online petition in support of Best Way (aka Life is Good). More than 12,000 people have signed it on Change.org.
“The Central Bank has infringed on the civil and constitutional rights of shareholders to voluntary cooperation and has harmed a non-profit organization created to meet the needs of citizens in housing! — the authors of the petition write. — On December 16, 2021, Roskomnadzor blocked the cooperative’s website, preventing the possibility of making monthly share payments intended for the subsequent purchase of personal housing. Interregional Consumer Cooperative Best Way has no signs of illegal activity in the financial market, and also does not fall under any of the signs of financial pyramids allocated by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. – Inset K.ru.
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