Report: Finiko Ponzi scheme attracted more than $2 billion
The Finiko financial pyramid raised over $2 billion in Bitcoin and ERC-20 tokens from its investors. Meanwhile, the founders held at least $500 million, stated a group of analysts who asked to remain anonymous.
The authors of the report say that VexellS provided the technical solutions, including a payment gateway, but the company itself disputes this information.
ForkLog was contacted by representatives of Vexel. They rejected the information published in the report.
“The information in this report does not correspond to reality; the wallets associated with us were never under our control, never opened on our platform. […] We have never been and are not part of the Finiko team […]. Vexel has never created websites for Finiko, never provided technical support for Finiko, has no and has never had any involvement in operating their platform. […] Regarding the addresses in the ERC-20 network: after the report we cross-checked in our [database] and likewise did not find client wallets with the addresses indicated. […] Vexel takes an open position, conducts its own investigation and is ready to cooperate with analytical companies to identify participants and the location of funds”, the company said. (spelling and punctuation preserved).
Analysts said they found “more than 99.5% of Finiko’s BTC addresses,” their number reached 797,924. The value of the cryptocurrency was fixed at the moment of the incoming transaction — the figure varies widely. According to the report, the system attracted 59,645 BTC, with an average value of $1.63 billion.
The authors noted that only in Bitcoin did Finiko’s leaders and those close to them earn millions of dollars. Thus, the income of the company’s vice-president Ilgiz Shakirov, even without accounting for inflows in other cryptocurrencies, exceeded $10 million.
Analysts said that Ethereum addresses associated with Finiko received tokens valued at over $623 million. Experts noted that some addresses remain active — those remaining at large co-founders of the pyramid may be using the funds.
The analysts explained that they published this report to objectively assess the extent of losses and assist in the capture of the pyramid’s organizers. According to the authors, Finiko’s actions harmed their friends and family.
Earlier, the Russian Interior Ministry said that the amount of damages claimed by victims in the Finiko case has tripled and surpassed 1 billion rubles.
According to Chainalysis, the financial pyramid raised over $1.5 billion in Bitcoin from investors in Eastern Europe.
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