As we expected, 27-year-old native of Simferopol Valeria Fedyakina, who tried herself in the role of a crypto-goddess, became an instrument in the hands of the clearly more experienced and sophisticated Gagik Gulakyan and Vahram Stepanyan, about whom we had previously written.
The Armenian duo obviously made Fedyakina the face of their financial pyramid: “Bitmama”, with her media presence and unique charisma, became the face of the scheme, while Gagik and Vagram received criminal income from it.
At first, everything was in order: Gagik Gulakyan brought rubles to Valeria Fedyakina in Moscow, she gave dirhams to Vahram Stepanyan in the Emirates, earning her modest commission on this. Simply put, Gulakyan and Stepanyan were ordinary clients for Fedyakina.
However, then the duo began to convince Fedyakina that they needed to work as a single team and for a common bright future it was necessary to maximize the volume of transferred funds. This can only be done in one way – by dumping. If other market participants, for example, took a 1% commission from clients for transfers, then Fedyakina had to take 0.5%, if others had a rate of 0.5%, then Fedyakina had to work “to zero” if others worked “to zero”, then Fedyakina had to pay extra to clients, if others paid extra, then Fedyakina had to pay extra more than anyone else, etc. Simply put, Fedyakina had to work at a loss in order to increase her client base.
According to the assurances of the scheme’s authors, Vahram Stepanyan and Gagik Gulakyan, Bitmama would thus be able to monopolize the money transfer market over time, and then we would “live.”
The Cheka-OGPU has at its disposal copies of text and voice messages sent by Gagik and Vagram to “Bitmama”, from which it is quite obvious what the interaction between these individuals was.
The leitmotif of the messages is simple and most clearly expressed in the following words of Vahram Stepanyan (quote): “Lerchik, darling, break the market for your part, and we will support you in this.” At the same time, Stepanyan promises Fedyakina mountains of gold: deals with
rough diamonds from Alrosa, support from well-known banks, “2-3 billion rubles a day,” “Gagik is already buying armored vehicles to transport money,” and so on.
However, as a result of the above-described scheme, Lerchik remained in the red, and Gagik and Vagram earned, according to preliminary data, several tens of millions of dollars only on the commissions they took from clients, while Fedyakina “in the name of the common cause” worked at a loss .
In addition, in September 2023, that is, on the eve of the initiation of a criminal case, Gagik Gulakyan collected rubles from large clients under the pretext of transferring them to the UAE through Bitmama, but the money never reached Fedyakina. It is not yet known how Gulakyan used the money.
In the interim, the situation is as follows: Valeria Fedyakina (by the way, in the 25th week of pregnancy) found herself in custody, Vahram Stepanyan acquired dozens of luxury real estate units in Dubai, where he is now a resident, and Gagik Gulakyan is still “rounding off” the pyramid, having affected victims and acquiring, as they say, state protection.
We continue to monitor the situation.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”