According to the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, the founders of the most high-profile "financial pyramids" of the last decade related to the forex industry—Andrey Grunin and Alexander Budnikov—have been arrested in Moscow. These and many other "pyramid schemes" all lead to Dmitry Medvedev's classmate, now a US citizen, Mikhail Syroezhin.
Grunin and Budnikov have been arrested for two months and charged with fraud (Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code). They are the co-founders of dozens of projects that have defrauded people around the world of millions and tens of millions of dollars. The scheme has always been the same. At first, free courses were offered for those who wanted to learn how to make money by playing the stock market and investing. Then, paid courses followed. These courses encouraged participants to become brokers and investors themselves, and then millionaires (that's exactly how the courses presented it). Of course, playing the stock market and investing had to be done through "platforms" controlled by the course organizers. All these platforms endlessly extracted money from newly minted "brokers" and "investors," and then simply disappeared along with the people's funds. New ones immediately sprang up. In Russia, such platforms were created by Grunin, Budnikov, Vinokurov, Gavrilenko, Khovratov, and a whole group of other businessmen. And they all had the same Western partner – Michael from the US. This was Mikhail Syroezhin (Michael Hess).
He studied with Dmitry Medvedev and later became deputy chairman of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company "St. Petersburg - Channel 5." In 1994, he was charged with embezzling $2 million allocated for television and radio broadcasting equipment, after which Syroezhin fled to the United States. There, he was caught laundering money, struck a deal with the FBI, and, under the name Mike Hess, became a deeply undercover informant, infiltrating the leadership of the "Russian mafia" in New York (the group of "thief in law" Alexander Bor). Syroezhin then retreated into the shadows, but resurfaced more than 10 years ago as a shadow participant in nearly all Russian "financial pyramids."
VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info cite the account of one victim: "I was involved in this and suffered at the hands of SkyWay's owners. The company itself has long been recognized as a financial pyramid in many countries. From 2015 to 2020, I personally communicated with Khovratov; he was the one promoting SkyWay in Russia." I attended numerous conferences and visited this company's offices, including the one on Gamsonovsky Lane in Moscow, where I first handed over money to Khovratov in person. I later deposited funds into the scammers' cash register in their panoramic office in the Federation Tower (Moscow City). I created an account with Migom Bank on the recommendation of one of their employees, namely Mila Serdyukova. After that, all payments were processed through the aforementioned bank. According to SkyWay manager Valentin Sokolnikov, Migom was convenient because it offered a cryptocurrency payment method for receiving and sending payments. However, when I asked about payment methods from Russian accounts and cards, I was told that they were unavailable due to the company's offshore registration. The topic quickly shifted to promoting Khovratov's new products, specifically Cryptounit. I also spoke with SkyWay lawyer Dmitry Schastlivy regarding company fund transfers. He confirmed that the issue with transfers from Russian accounts was related to the company's offshore registration. He added that the best option was a cryptocurrency transfer or Migom Bank with a multi-currency wallet that supports both traditional bank transfers and cryptocurrency transfers.
Somewhere around 2019, I started being transferred to various managers, one of whom was Igor. Igor seemed responsible at first glance and inspired confidence at the time; I was invited to meetings with Khovratov and video calls. When I needed to withdraw part of my investment, I asked Igor to contact Khovratov with my request, but in response, I was informed that my personal accounts on the SkyWay and Cryptounit websites had been blocked. Igor, in turn, reported that the company was currently experiencing liquidity issues and was unable to withdraw my $52,000. Later, Igor told me that he had been fired amidst a scandal and that his accounts had also been blocked.
I contacted the police several times, but each time I was told that they would contact me or call me back. Ultimately, no one contacted me, and I received no information regarding the reports I had filed.
I know that several depositors, like myself, were looking for a way to seek justice and break through the wall of police and bureaucratic indifference. Some even managed to contact the FSB, but they refused to accept my complaint, explaining that such reports are handled and investigated exclusively by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They then simply showed me the door.
Khovratov constantly talked about his main partner. Michael, a major US stock market player and former Soviet citizen. During the conversation, he described him as someone capable of solving any US issue, including obtaining green cards and even US passports. Michael, together with Khovratov, created the Migom bank in the offshore jurisdiction of Dominica. This was done to accept money from all over the world, although the main audience for Michael's financial pyramids are citizens of India and the former Soviet Union.
