The criminal lawsuit involving a Yekaterinburg entrepreneur Alexei Kalinichenko is still in progress; the businessman is suspected of setting up a pyramid scheme called Global Gaming Expo and stealing over 1 billion RUR worth of 4,000 Russian citizens’ savings.

The investigation of the case has been prolonged till September 2011 and could be prolonged even further not only because this is a difficult case but also because the amount of work to be done is enormous. There are about 4,000 victims, and everyone has to be accounted for. Our investigative officer works every day,’ the press service representative of Russia’s Department of Internal Affairs in Ural Federal District Yulia Samsonchik told UrBC.

Alexei Kalinichenko is currently detained in Yekaterinburg’s detention ward No. 1.

The suspect was taken from Moscow to Yekaterinburg on May 23, 2011. A week earlier, the man behind Global Gaming Expo had been extradited from Morocco. The extradition process took over two and a half years.

The man’s business had to do with stock trading on Forex foreign exchange through an offshore company called Livingston Investment as well as via Bank24.ru, of which Alexei Kalinichenko was a BOD member; he also had a 20% shareholding in the bank.