UrBC, Moscow, April 25, 2019. Russia’s Central Bank says the financial pyramid schemes currently tend to migrate to the Urals and Siberia, Izvestia refers to Director of the bank’s Department for Countering Misconduct Valeriy Lyakh as stating.

The schemes get tested for viability first and get transferred to larger parts of the country later, as people there tend to be less aware of fraudulent practices, Lyakh explains.

61 pyramid schemes got uncovered in Russia in the first quarter of the year all in all; 31 one of these were limited liability companies, 10 were online projects (including 3 foreign ones), and 9 pyramid schemes worked under the guise of micro-financing organizations. The Central Bank also identified a network of consignment stores that issued loans with movable property as collateral.

According to Valeriy Lyakh, this year is unusual in that fraudulent companies now pretend to deal in leasing activities and invest in businesses that never issued any bonds. There were, however, no large-scale pyramid schemes like last year’s CashBerry; so far, most of the fraudulent schemes have been attempted by small organizations, with minimal damage to their investors.