The BitOK service team has identified key addresses associated with the activities of Valeria Fedyakina, accused of cryptocurrency fraud, known under the nickname Bitmama, and her accomplices.
According to their information, one of Fedyakina's addresses has stopped carrying out transactions since September 17. Most of the counterparties to transactions on it are deposit addresses of exchangers, as well as addresses belonging to the Garantex exchange.
From the second wallet, in the period from September 13 to September 17, all funds in the amount of $12.2 million were withdrawn to two third-party addresses (1, 2).
The total amount of funds that passed through these two addresses amounted to $139 million, according to experts.
In the future, the coins continued to be split. As a result, some of them ended up in small amounts on the deposit addresses of cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Bybit, and HTX (formerly Huobi).
The rest, having gone through a chain of transactions using cryptocurrency mixers, ended up at an address that belongs to an unidentified service.
According to analysts, about 20% of the total amount of assets received on Fedyakina's wallets are associated with the Russian crypto exchange Garantex.
Fedyakina cooperated with exchange offices: she received cash from them and promised to withdraw money in another state with an additional payment, despite the fact that they usually charge a commission for such transactions. She explained this by her connections with large businessmen and state corporations.
However, in September, Bitmama stopped communicating. A little earlier, customers faced delays in payments.
According to Baza, on September 15, Fedyakina was detained in Moscow because of a suspicious transaction. She received 6.7 billion rubles in cash from an acquaintance and promised to exchange them for cryptocurrency with a 1% surcharge. Later, the client realized that he would not see the money and turned to the police.
Fedyakina, who is six months pregnant, has been charged with major fraud. She faces up to ten years in prison. Due to the presence of a residence permit in the UAE, the court sent her under arrest.
According to Indefibank CEO Sergei Mendeleev, Fedyakina is in pre-trial detention center-6 Pechatniki.
Blogger Mikhail Zhukhovitsky was the first to publish information that Bitmama "cheated the shadow exchanger market by $150 million".
In a comment, he said that among the victims are "hundreds of small" firms, "but there are also large ones with checks from 20 million rubles".
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Valeria Fedyakina, who was arrested on charges of embezzlement of 6.7 billion rubles, known by her personal brand Bitmama, appealed to the general public through a response letter to the executive director of Indefi Bank, Sergei Mendeleev. In a letter from the place of pre-trial detention, Fedyakina says that she considers herself not guilty, but the injured party. According to Bitmama, she was robbed and framed by some unnamed participants in the events. Now she cannot comment on these very events, but she is ready to start talking after October 3.
At the same time, new details of the high-profile case initiated on September 15 appeared in the telegram channel of the Cheka-OGPU, which is close to law enforcement agencies. The decision to initiate a criminal case appears, the authors of this media assure, a certain unemployed Muscovite Gagik Gulakyan. He entrusted 27-year-old Valeria Fedyakina with almost 7 billion rubles in cash (!) "for the purpose of investing in crypto assets, but the girl deceived him, and stole the money".
The authors of the VChK-OGPU channel note: additional intrigue is introduced by the almost instant initiation of the case and the detention of Valeria Fedyakina. It follows from the materials that the statement about the crime was submitted by Gulakyan to the FSB department for Moscow and the Moscow region on September 14, 2023. The materials of the check promptly arrived at the main department of the Investigative Committee for the city of Moscow, and a few hours later, at 2:30 am the next day, a criminal case was opened.
Another Telegram channel that has been noted for leaks and is close to the security forces, the FSB Boutique, announced that his informant from the Moscow and regional department assures that almost 7 billion rubles of cash transferred to Valeria Fedyakina belonged to the head of the FSB, Alexei Dorofeev.
An interesting fact: the 6.7 billion rubles in cash declared by the stolen in banknotes of the maximum denomination of 5000 rubles will weigh almost 150 kg, consisting of about 13,400 packs with a total volume of 1,350 m3. It is quite problematic to cope with such weight and volume alone, especially if a pregnant woman tossed them over herself.
Another defendant appeared in the criminal case, a certain Vahram Stepanyan living in the United Arab Emirates, writes the same Cheka-OGPU. From the testimony of Gagik Gulakyan, it follows, the authors of the channel assure, that the victim was engaged in the withdrawal of funds abroad and was not interested in crypto investing. Gulakyan allegedly handed over cash rubles to Valeria Fedyakina in Moscow, and his friend and partner Vahram Stepanyan received the corresponding amount in Emirati dirhams somewhere in the UAE.
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Bitmama's case with a threefold reduction in damage was transferred to the prosecutor's office
As it became known to Kommersant, the criminal case of a native of Simferopol, Valeria Fedyakina, better known as Bitmama, was transferred to the prosecutor's office for approval of the charges. Initially, the amount of embezzlement imputed to her decreased threefold. According to the investigation, the businesswoman, who positioned herself as an expert in the field of cryptocurrency and the owner of an oil tanker, was able to "cheat" her clients for 2.2 billion rubles in just two months of 2023.
A criminal case against 27-year-old Valeria Fedyakina, who worked under the brand "Bitmama" or "Bitmama Finance", was initiated by the Main Investigation Department of the ICR in Moscow in September 2023 at the request of the capital's investor Gagik Gulakyan, who reported that he had become a victim of fraudulent actions of a native of Simferopol, who stole 6.7 billion rubles from him.
The applicant said that he met her at the end of March 2023 in Dubai through a mutual acquaintance. Ms. Fedyakina presented herself as a successful investor in the field of oil, gold and crypto and then gained popularity. A woman who rented a room at the Four Seasons Hotel on Okhotny Ryad boasted that she had offices in Dubai, Monaco, Belgrade and Turkey, as well as in Moscow City and on the Arbat.
One of the main services it offers was the so-called reshuffling of funds, which became especially in demand when Russian banks were under sanctions after the start of the special military operation.
It consisted in the fact that businessmen who needed money to pay for goods brought it in one country and received it in another. At the same time, unlike banks that charge a commission for the transfer, Mrs. Fedyakina herself promised her customers to "pay". According to Gagik Gulakyan, Bitmama explained to him that she works with entrepreneurs exporting oil and coal, and international transfers using cryptocurrency bring her considerable income. It guaranteed a refund in the agreed currency, as well as a 0.5% bonus if it was able to use the funds in its projects "for at least three days." At the same time, Ms. Fedyakina said that she owns an oil tanker. Mr. Gulakyan agreed. At first, the scheme worked without interruption, but in late August - early September, problems with the return of money began.
According to the case file, on September 8, Bitmama accepted $4.8 million from the victim's representatives in her office on Novy Arbat for exchange, the next day - 98 million rubles and $515 thousand, and on September 12 - another 209 million rubles in order to receive equivalent amounts in the UAE in dirhams. "However, Fedyakina did not fulfill her obligations on conversion and international money transfers and payment of remuneration, and stole the received funds, disposing of them at her own discretion, thereby causing Gulakyan material damage on an especially large scale in the amount of 837 million rubles," the investigation stated. It was this amount that it considered documented.
The suspect, who was six months pregnant, was detained on September 15, 2023 after operatives found out that she was going to fly to the UAE, where she had a residence permit. Since then, she has been held in the capital's pre-trial detention center No6, where she gave birth to a daughter.
During the investigation, three more were recognized as victims in her case.
So, according to the investigation, in early July 2023 Mrs. Fedyakina persuaded a major metropolitan entrepreneur Nikolai Seleznev (name and surname have been changed) to take part in her "investment program" by providing her with cryptocurrency at 0.4% per day. As a result, Bitmama became the owner of more than 5 million USDT (which in ruble equivalent was more than 456.2 million rubles), which the entrepreneur transferred to her from his crypto wallets on July 7. When Ms. Fedyakina raised the interest rate to 1% per day, the businessman transferred her another 3.7 million USDT, corresponding to 374 million rubles.
And at the end of July 2023, the TFR stated, the capital's businessman Alexei Averin (name and surname have also been changed) also fell for Bitmama's bait. As the investigation found out, Mrs. Fedyakina told him that she cooperates with entrepreneurs who export oil and gold, and promised to pay 0.5% per day for the use of money. She persuaded the businessman to transfer to her office in Dubai on September 8 and 11 for exchange for dollars in Moscow, first 40 million dirhams (which at the exchange rate of the Central Bank at that time amounted to 1.069 billion rubles), and then 42.5 million dirhams (or 1.1 billion rubles). The accused Fedyakina did fulfill most of these obligations, but did not return 563.3 million rubles.
The fourth victim of Bitmama's actions was blogger Yulia Zakharchuk, who calls herself Crypto Angel, who participated in the promotion of Ms. Fedyakina. According to the case file, on August 13, having taken 5 million rubles from her for "investments", Bitmama promised her a profit of 15% per month. The contract signed by the parties did not save Mrs. Zakharchuk - she did not see either profit or her money.
"During the investigation, Fedyakina assured that she was really a great businessman, they had offices in Dubai, and she had several companies of her own, almost a consortium. At the same time, she could not give either the address, or the names of the companies, or the names of her employees, claiming that she simply did not remember them," Ivan Mironov, chairman of the Mironov and Partners Bar Association, who represents the interests of the victim Gulakyan, told Kommersant. He believes that, despite the fact that Ms. Fedyakina is alone in the case, and there are not even "unidentified persons" in the case, we are talking about a well-organized group of fraudsters who "remained in the shadows and control most of the stolen money".
"Fedyakina is simply afraid to name her accomplices, although if she had cooperated with the investigation, her measure of restraint would have been instantly changed," said Mr. Mironov, "However, now for her and her child, the pre-trial detention center is the safest place, because for those who stand behind her, she is the most dangerous witness."
Ms. Fedyakina pleaded not guilty to fraud on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Lawyers Yulia Volotskaya and Irina Samokhina claim that their client herself became a victim of fraudsters who "robbed" her. According to the lawyers, Mrs. Fedyakina, who "worked with people on her word of honor", gave large sums of money to Gagik Gulakyan and his partner Vahram Stepanyan in the UAE in dirhams, and they had to replenish the cash desk in Moscow, repaying loans. However, they took more, and gave less, owing $ 40 million. "On this fact, Fedyakina filed a statement, demanding to initiate a case against Gulakyan and Stepanyan, howeverThe investigation simply attached him to the case, without conducting a full-fledged check", said Ms. Volotskaya. The lawyer also said that her client denies guilt on the rest of the episodes and did not testify before the trial.
The other day, on October 16, the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow restricted Ms. Fedyakina from familiarizing herself with the case materials, ordering her to read 26 volumes until November 1. After that, the prosecutor's office will approve the indictment and send the case to court. Bitmama faces up to ten years in prison, however, as the mother of a young child, she can count on a deferred sentence.
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