After this, Ebis stopped servicing them and declared default in September 2022. This circumstance attracted the attention of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. After checking the circumstances of the issuer’s activities and identifying signs of a financial pyramid, in which the funds of about 4 thousand people were involved, the regulator turned to law enforcement agencies.
A criminal case was initiated by the Internal Affairs Directorate for the CJSC Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Moscow under two articles: Art. 159 Fraud and Art. 172.2 Organization of activities to raise funds and (or) other property.
On November 1, Nikolay Alexandrov, Evgeny Makul, Vladimir Tezov, Mikhail Rozin, Alexey Lushin, Vladislav Shagarov, Alexey Vesnovsky, Maria Karshina, Alexander Klyucharev, Evgeny Dubovsky, Inna Kochemarova, Nikolay Tsagolov were detained in the EBIS case. All of the detainees, except Alexander Klyucharev, confessed and pointed to the latter as the organizer of a financial pyramid for the purpose of deliberately stealing money.
Alexander Klyucharyov is known as one of the founders of the Octothorp Fund, which received scandalous fame in the high-yield bond market. Since 2016, the companies Neumark, Ophir, Lombard Master, TEK Salavat, which were under the management of Oktotorp, as well as Ebis, the largest of the issuers, defaulted on their bonds and are currently are currently either in liquidation or bankruptcy proceedings.
The investigation has facts that in order to withdraw funds from Ebis bondholders, Alexander Klyucharyov implemented a number of schemes for withdrawing funds with the participation of shell companies and affiliated individual entrepreneurs.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”