Pro Keshbury

They have robbed billions of Russians: the largest pyramid of the last 20 years.

Cashbury is the largest pyramid scheme operating in Russia today. Several tens of thousands of Russians were involved in it, and the amount of potential damage varies, according to various estimates, from one to three billion rubles. At the same time, the sources of "Lenta.ru" are convinced that these figures are understated by at least 10 times. Three weeks have passed since the Central Bank's statement on the fraudulent nature of Cashbury spread on September 26, but neither the law enforcement agencies nor the regulator itself have taken any active steps. Why an organization that has been collecting money from the population for two years without hindrance will not get anything for it - in the material of "Lenta.ru".

Take some money

Cashbury positions itself as a platform that brings together investors and borrowers on the same platform. Clients are offered to lend to ordinary people, as well as small and medium-sized businesses with a yield of up to 600 percent per annum. In addition, it is possible to finance movable and immovable property on collateral and invest in cryptocurrency. Everything would be fine, but Cashbury offers loans to individuals at a crazy rate of 2,2 percent per day. For comparison, the maximum rates of Russian microfinance organizations are 1,5-2 percent of the information on the Cashbury website; since 2016, online loans have been issued throughout the country. It is noted that the main reason for the expansion of activities was “increased demand for the PDL product (money before payday) in the context of a protracted recession.” Separately, it is emphasized that Cashbury satisfies the needs of all segments of the population, including the socially unprotected.

It is noteworthy that among the depositors of "Cashbury" there are a lot of people with disabilities, in particular, those who are deaf and hard of hearing - special events are held for them, there are separate groups on VKontakte and Facebook. According to the Central Bank, “Cashbury” builds its activities on the principles of network marketing, promises inflated returns and conducts aggressive advertising in the media and social networks. At the same time, the company does not conduct any real economic activity, emphasize in the regulator.

Where the legs grow

But they learned very well to create the illusion of this activity and to confuse the tracks in Cashbury. According to the information posted on the website in the “About the Company” tab, it is said that “since 2016, Cashbury has been a group of companies that includes the Warsaw Microcredit Company, the Cashbury Limited Liability Company and the English company Cashbery Limited, which coordinates the work platforms for investors. At the same time, the Questions and Answers page states that the holding includes the Russian company Cashbury LLC and the English Cashberry Limited, but the Warsaw ICC is not mentioned. Moreover, back in July 2018, the Cashbury holding included at least four organizations, of which only one remains today - Cashberry Limited.

Mysteriously, such structures as LLC MFO Cashbury, MCC Khrizolit and MCC Sardonyx have disappeared from the list. According to the RusProfile reference service, the founder and CEO of LLC MFO Cashbury, registered on March 20, 2013 in Rostov-on-Don, is a certain Alekseev Roman Alekseevich. On the same person and at the same address on November 20, 2016, Cashbury LLC was also registered. He also manages a dozen more legal entities, most of which are in the process of liquidation, as, in fact, and LLC MFO Cashbury - "On June 13, 2018, a decision was made to exclude an inactive legal entity from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities." Both "Cashbury" have a "solid" authorized capital of 10 thousand rubles.

Another clone - another Cashbury LLC - appeared on September 20, 2018. True, now the legal entity is registered in Yekaterinburg in the name of a certain Ivan Alexandrovich Shestakov, and the authorized capital has grown to 100 thousand rubles. There is also Cashbury Holding LLC represented by Polina Viktorovna Valiullina, who, among other things, controls the same MCC "Chrysolite" and MCC "Sardonyx" mentioned on the website "Cashbury", registered on the same day - July 3, 2017 of the year. True, they were excluded by the Central Bank from the register of microfinance market participants several months after registration.

The activities of all of these companies range from financial services to legal activities or, for example, trade in trucks. It is also curious that in the Russian-language and English-language versions of the “Cashbury” site the OGRN, ascribed to the LLC MFI “Cashbury”, differs somewhat. According to the Federal Tax Service (FTS), the organization with the BIN 5077746931928 suddenly turns out to be MFC House Money LLC, but certainly not Cashbury.

Figured on three

British companies are even more confusing. In 2016, the Rostov LLC Cashbury entered into an agency agreement with the British company Cashbery Limited represented by its director, Russian citizen and UK resident Artur Vardanyan, who calls himself the creator of Cashbury and runs the entire advertising campaign. According to the agreement, the Russian LLC actually represents the interests of Cashberry Limited in the territory of the Russian Federation, attracts clients and concludes agreements with them on behalf of the British company. Which, however, turned out to be far from the only one, and Arturov Vardanyanov, judging by the documents, is not one, but three.

Arthur Vardanyan

So, Cashbery Limited was registered in November 2016 in the name of Mr. Vardanyan, born in 1980, and in 2017 two companies appeared - Cashbery Group LTD and Cashberytrading LTD - in the name of Artur Vardanyan, who was born in 1981. Moreover, in these two cases, the spelling of the surname differs: in the first it is Vardanyan, and in the second it is Vardanjan. The third Vardanyan, and rejuvenated again - already born in 1983, registered another company - Cashbery International Limited in August 2018.

It is noteworthy that as the main activity of Cashberry Limited and Cashberry Limited International is “providing personal expenses” (undifferentiated service-producing). In addition, it is striking that the authorized capital of all companies registered before 2018 is just one pound, while the capital of Cashberry Limited International suddenly turned out to be one billion pounds (more than 1,3 billion dollars).

Hut from the edge

The naked eye can see that Cashbury is doing everything to negate the possibility of bringing the company's management to justice. Even after reviewing the agency offer agreement, it becomes clear that the company does not guarantee anything, is not responsible for transactions concluded between investors and borrowers, and in general is practically not burdened with any obligations. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the invested funds do not go to the settlement account of Cashbury LLC, but directly to the bank cards of individuals. Consequently, the receipt of money is not documented in any way, and the "Cashbury" itself acts only as a supposedly "information and reference system".

But in this case, the partnership between Cashbury LLC and MCC Varshava LLC remains unclear. The website says that Cashbury LLC does not have a license for microfinance activities and does not issue loans on its own, however, Varshava has such a license. It is noted that the company does not accept investments from individuals, and "microloans are issued at their own expense." It turns out that investments are not credited either to the Cashbury settlement account or to the borrowers' accounts. If you try to make a deposit in Cashbury through Sberbank, then an individual will appear as the recipient - a certain Tatyana Sergeevna N. Therefore, there is no evidence that the funds are transferred to Cashbury.

Another way for the pyramid to protect themselves as much as possible is to use a long circulation period. Thus, Cashbury clients are invited to invest cash for a period of one year. This strategy allows for some time to avoid claims and complaints of victims. It should be borne in mind that most of the HYIPs on the Internet (High Yield Investment Program - a fraudulent project, similar to an investment fund, a kind of pyramid scheme) die even earlier than a year later. The fact that "Cashbury" existed for two, can be considered a great success.

On the verge of

On October 11, Artur Vartanyan announced the suspension of the platform until November 1. “We are forced to go on a three-week vacation to restore blocked accounts and create a payment infrastructure in order to begin fulfilling obligations to investors,” he said in an address to depositors, noting that difficulties are temporary. According to Vardanyan, during the two-week "news orgy", the company's accounts were blocked, the leaders were intimidated, the partners of "Cashbury" were blackmailed, "multiple malicious actions with the site" were carried out.

In general, this treatment can be considered the death throes. Frankly, this is such a classic move. As soon as the pyramid begins to have problems, the company immediately goes on vacation, on holidays, on holidays, draws rubber and feeds the investors with breakfast. The story about the hard work of the team, the promise that it will be even better than it was - all as a carbon copy. The hype that the media raised, paradoxically, the “Cashbury” itself is really very good. The leadership of any pyramid, as a rule, needs some kind of excuse to leave the front stage beautifully, and here it wasn’t even necessary to look for it. Vardanyan has already explained the problems of “Cashbury” with “a flurry of mud” from the media and the Internet community.

Image: YouTube screenshot

What is most interesting is that many Cashbury customers support it, block negative reviews about the company on YouTube, write comments, put dizlikas. They really believe that the platform has suspended operations due to an information attack related to the fact that the traditional banking system does not want to let competitors into the market. Many also hold the opinion that the largest financial pyramid in the country is in fact the Bank of Russia. And one has to think that people have some reason to talk like that and not to trust the regulator.

Waved his hand

The Central Bank itself knew about the existence of Cashbury for a long time. According to information on the website of the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP), more than a year ago, the regulator imposed a fine of half a million rubles on MFO Cashbury LLC in the case of administrative offense No. no action followed. “The fine has not been paid, no one is looking for debtors, Cashbury LLC is now registered at the same address, the advertisement of which (along with the address) hangs all over Moscow, not to mention the regions. In my opinion, only this lead would be enough for the Central Bank to appeal to the prosecutor's office and law enforcement agencies, ”Vladimir Dyakov, a specialist in the field of legal expertise and asset protection, the creator of the first Russian crypto-detective agency Crypto Detectives, told Lente.ru.

Image: FSSP

The expert also drew attention to the fact that the record of the fine suddenly disappeared from the section “Administrative production” on the Central Bank website, although it remained in the FSSP database. According to Diacov, the reason for questions to Vardanyan could also be registered in August and already mentioned by Cashbery International Limited with a registered capital of one billion pounds. “The very existence of such a company with such declared capital provides enough grounds for questions to Vardanyan about the origin of capital and ways to bring it to the UK,” said Diacov.

It is also noteworthy that at the same time as Valery Lyakh, the director of the Central Bank's department for counteracting unfair practices, made a statement on Cashbury, the regulator entered the League of Auctions company into the register of microfinance organizations. This organization is engaged in buying up property put up for auctions during bankruptcy of companies, and is a partner of Cashbury, as reported on the service website. Vadim Vyacheslavovich Gerasimov is called the general director and founder of LLC MCC "Auction League", who at the same time manages the already mentioned MCC "Varshava" LLC, where one employee works, apparently Gerasimov himself.

Earlier on the Cashbury website, among other things, it was reported that the League of Auctions is working with its partner, the British company League of Auctions. She, however, was liquidated in May 2018. The regulator did not answer the question of Lenta.ru about how the Central Bank can comment on the decision to include this organization in the register, just like no other question related to Cashbury. There was also no response to the official request of "Lenta.ru" addressed to the head of the Main Department for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The press center of the ministry refused to talk about the reasons.

No chance

As a result, three weeks have passed since the Central Bank's statement, but things are still there. Against the background of how reactively Russian law enforcement agencies may react, for example, to an “extremist” repost on VKontakte, this slowness looks suspicious. Only on October 12, TASS, citing a source, reported that the Ministry of Internal Affairs had nevertheless begun checking the Cashbury group for signs of a pyramid scheme. According to the interlocutor of the agency, after a check against the organizers of the group, a criminal case may be initiated under Article 159 of the Criminal Code ("Fraud"). True, it will not be so easy to bring Vardanyan to criminal responsibility, if only because he does not live in Russia. "It will be hard. His English companies only provided services, the main persons involved are MKKshki, for the most part already dead and registered as drops, ”Dyakov comments.

Cashbury clients are also unlikely to return their money, given that they will have to collect debts after the company is declared financially untenable. “If we ignore the assessment of the prospects for possible criminal prosecution, then from the point of view of civil legal relations, the situation is difficult. The creditors of the companies of the group that refused to return the money if their claims are not secured by a pledge of liquid assets will most likely be forced to participate in a lengthy bankruptcy procedure for debtor companies with an uncertain outcome. In bankruptcy proceedings with similar circumstances, as a rule, a very low percentage of repayment of creditors' claims is probably less than 5-10 percent, ”said Anton Babenko, partner of the law bureau Padva and Epstein.

In Cashbury itself, everyone understands this very well. “They simply cannot prove something or accuse Cashbury. Even when MMM existed in the 90s, they really could not do anything, not to mention the present time, - said the company's statement on VKontakte. - They filed a lawsuit, but the court could not admit guilt, and could not forbid. It's just that it's all outside the system, and it simply won't work to fight legally. " With the creator of MMM Sergei Mavrodi, people really sued for years, but they never got anything. At the time of his death, the database of the bailiff service contained information about more than two thousand enforcement proceedings against Mavrodi. At the same time, many claims were declared hopeless due to the defendant's lack of property.

And our, and your

Cashbury is indeed a fraudulent project created to enrich its creators. However, all this demonstrative flogging does not negate the fact that there are still a lot of such unscrupulous companies operating in Russia. But for some reason neither the Central Bank nor the law enforcement agencies care about them. Meanwhile, even the media that once advertised this company began to drown Cashbury. Suddenly, the mention of an article titled “Cashbury opens representative offices in the regions” on Vesti.Ru disappeared from the Cashbury website from the “Media about us” section. This material is now also not found on the Vesti website. But detailed revealing stories about the largest financial pyramid have already appeared in the Vesti Nedeli program with Dmitry Kiselev on Rossiya 1, as well as in other news releases on the TV channel.

Nikolay Baskov

Cashbury was also promoted by domestic celebrities, such as singer Nikolai Baskov, TV presenter Anfisa Chekhova, comedian Sergei Mezentsev, singer Olga Buzova, singer Valery Meladze. Also, the advertising campaign involved countless bloggers who distributed referral links and urged “to start making money with Cashbury”. It turns out that for money you can promote any selected garbage. After all, neither pop stars, nor bloggers, nor the media disdain to make money on the gullibility of ordinary Russians.

At the same time, it is curious that quite often the participants of modern financial pyramids themselves understand the nature of their investments and simply hope that they will have time to “jump off”. That is, they understand that they will be provided with profits by other people's investments, other unfortunate investors, who in the end will be left with nothing. Probably these same people are so vehemently defending the Cashbury against attacks. However, the problem here is much deeper. Condemn people for the fact that they are trying to survive in a country where, it turns out, every man for himself is at least unfair.

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