Escada Business School Case
2024: Sentencing for ₽55 Million Fraud
On November 1, 2024, the Kuibyshevsky District Court of St. Petersburg delivered sentences to four individuals involved in an investment fraud. The case concerned the misappropriation of approximately ₽55 million from 45 people who had been persuaded to invest in shares and cryptocurrency projects. The sentences ranged from three to seven years of imprisonment.
According to RBC, the defendants — Robert Aloyan, Revaz Burduli, Hakob Tovmasyan, and Nikolai Volokitin — admitted their guilt. They were convicted of large-scale fraud committed by an organized group under Part 4, Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Operation of the Scheme
The fraudulent activities were carried out between January 2019 and April 2020 through the company Escada Business School LLC. Around 40 call center employees worked in the organization, contacting potential clients using databases obtained from job search websites.
According to Irina Volk, the official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the suspects invited individuals to rented offices in central St. Petersburg. There, they presented investment opportunities as reliable and profitable. In cases where clients lacked sufficient funds, they were assisted in obtaining loans via microfinance companies connected to the scheme.
The operation also included offering paid training programs and encouraging clients to place significant deposits on a platform called Vizavi, which was presented as a brokerage service. The money collected was then redirected for personal use and to establish new offices in the Yaroslavl and Moscow regions.
Court Rulings
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Robert Aloyan – 7 years imprisonment
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Revaz Burduli – 7 years imprisonment
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Hakob Tovmasyan – 6 years and 11 months imprisonment
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Nikolai Volokitin – 3 years suspended sentence
When the suspects were detained in spring 2020, investigators indicated that the total amount of misappropriated funds might have exceeded ₽100 million.