The organizers of a financial pyramid scheme in Kuban were sentenced to long prison terms.

Nearly 1,200 people fell victim to the fraudulent scheme, and in total, they transferred more than 870 million rubles to the credit union.

As "Caucasian Knot" reported, in January 2025, the court sentenced Yuri Boyakhchyan to two years, finding him guilty in the case of a financial pyramid scheme whose organizers defrauded residents of Kabardino-Balkaria of more than 700 million rubles.

The Oktyabrsky District Court of Krasnodar sentenced five organizers of the Sberegatelny Soyuz credit cooperative. Rafael Babayev, Vladislav Khachiyan, Yuri Pyshin, Oksana Grebenshchikova, and Igor Gerasimov were found guilty of large-scale fraud amounting to 873 million rubles. 1,197 people were victims in the case, according to the Telegram channel of the united press service of the courts of Krasnodar Krai.

They were sentenced to imprisonment in a general regime penal colony: Babayev received a term of 9 years and 10 months, Khachiyan - 7 years, Grebenshchikova - 5 years, Pyshin - 4 years and 6 months, and Gerasimov - 4 years and 1 month. All convicted individuals were taken into custody right in the courtroom. Furthermore, the seizure of their property remains in effect.

According to investigators, from May 2014 to February 2019, the defendants attracted funds under the guise of investing in credit unions with yields of approximately 13%. Moreover, the Savings Union operated as a Ponzi scheme—interest was paid using funds from new depositors. Total damages exceeded 870 million rubles, according to RBC.

As a reminder, in January 2024, the cassation court upheld the sentence of three credit union executives, who were sentenced to prison terms on charges of fraud with the funds of 234 depositors.