The leaders of FrendeX are under suspicion.

Muddy platinum of FrendeX directors

Two individuals, Trishakov and Nasybullin, have been arrested for embezzling more than 200 million rubles. The former TV presenter and the public figure associated with the Madiyarov pyramid, along with her father and husband, are wanted by the authorities.

As reported by BUSINESS Online, the Kazan pre-trial detention center now holds two defendants who were directors at the well-known financial pyramid Frendex. They are suspected of a large-scale fraud, as are two hidden co-founders of the pyramid, Ruslan Pichugin and Dmitry Chechulin. Dmitry Chechulin.

Dmitry Chechulin

This is the first instance where the authorities are focusing on the promoters of the pyramids. The main individuals, known to investors in the region as the trinity TabrizTeam, are still at large and have been placed on the wanted list while they are in Turkey. More details in the article on “BUSINESS Online”. Finiko Arrests, schemes, properties: what is being investigated by the authorities

Arrests, schemes, properties: what is being investigated by the authorities

As the legal case against the recently discovered large financial pyramid Finiko progresses towards court, the authorities have begun active measures against another similar structure from Tatarstan called Frendex. Both pyramids operated on a similar basis: purportedly having traders who traded on the stock exchange to increase investor capital. Additionally, active participants in the “projects” were promised referral payments – or bonuses for each client they attracted. Finiko was shut down in July 2021, while Frendex closed a couple of weeks later.

However, while the legal case against Finiko was initiated almost immediately due to its scale and impact, leading to the detention of not only the founders but also the main recruiters who actively brought in investors, no such action was taken against Frendex until recently. According to BUSINESS Online, two active participants in the Frendex pyramid, Alexei Trishakov and Azat Nasybullin, have been imprisoned. Furthermore, both are identified on the internet as “platinum directors” of the pyramid.

Alexey Trishakov (left) and Azat Nasybullin How Frendex operated
Frendex was established in 2017 and positioned itself as an “exclusive investment club”. In 2020, amidst the pandemic, the management, led by founder Ruslan Pichugin, altered the project's format to target those who had lost their jobs and a stable income during the lockdown.
The platform's founder claimed that profits were generated through stock trading in the stock and currency markets, and later, the company expanded to the real estate sector. Subsequently, the focus shifted to cryptocurrency and investments in startups. The company offered partners up to 2% of income per day, and promised a profit of 30-70% per week.
On August 9, 2021, the person who created the pyramid scheme, Pichugin, said they are shutting down the operation in Russia because the main trader, Chechulin, broke his arms and can't trade anymore. They also stated that they can't keep working in the country due to regulations. They promised to give back the depositors' money by October 2021 and asked them to provide their bitcoin wallets. However, people didn't get their money in October or even six months later.

An investigator from the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Tatarstan requested the Vakhitovsky court to arrest two people involved in the case. One of them, Trishakov, is 45 years old, and does not have an official job. Before being involved with Frendex, he promoted a company that claimed to sell health products, and after the scam, he started promoting another project.

The second person arrested is 29-year-old Nasybullin. He was presented as unmarried during a speech at one of the Frendex events. On his VKontakte page, he calls himself an entrepreneur, and he posted photos of himself in a car, in an apartment with panoramic windows, and in the office, along with motivational stories. His first post related to business was about becoming his student by investing at least $100. He also wrote about becoming successful in an honest way. However, he deleted all posts related to Frendex, although they can still be found in the search bar.

What's happening with the criminal case and where are the founders of Frendex?
A criminal case was initiated against the founder of the Pichugin pyramid on October 18, 2021, for large-scale fraud. The damage is estimated at 200 million rubles. His main partner and co-founder, Chechulin, became a defendant four months later, on February 14, 2022, and was put on the wanted list on the same day. The investigation accuses Pichugin and Chechulin of stealing depositors' money on a large scale by deceiving them with false information about high profits on the Frendex platform from May 2020 to August 2021.
They are on the wanted list and are hiding in another country. Chechulin was previously detained in Italy and released on bail, awaiting an extradition trial. There is no information available about Pichugin's location.

In April 2021, Nasybullin and co-founder Chechulin unveiled the pyramid at the Riviera Hermitage in Kazan.

As BUSINESS Online was informed by the press service of the Vakhitovsky court, Trishakov and Nasybullin were placed under arrest until November 12. They are accused of committing fraud on an especially large scale, which could lead to up to 10 years in prison.

Kommersant.Ru, 09/16/2022, “The pyramid went under demolition”: According to the investigation, from May 2020 to August 2021, Alexei Trishakov and Azat Nasibullin, while on the territory of Tatarstan and other regions of Russia, spread false information about the highly profitable financial activities of the Frendex platform they created with the intention of stealing property from multiple individuals.

The pyramid ceased operations on August 9, 2021, citing the decision of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which identified Frendex Europe OU as engaging in illegal financial activities. The company pledged to repay depositors in equal installments from October 16 of the previous year and requested Bitcoin wallets for the refunds. A few days later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tatarstan started receiving complaints from victims of the organization’s activities.

Additionally, 20 land plots were seized in the case, with 12 located in the Rybno-Sloboda district of Tatarstan and the remaining 8 in the Moscow region. The defendants’ apartments and houses in Moscow, the Moscow region, Chelyabinsk, and Kazan along the Orenburg tract were also placed under arrest, along with accounts holding up to 200 million rubles. The latest data indicates that the damage in the Frendex case exceeded 200 million rubles, with 300 victims coming forward with complaints.

The leading figures of Frendex are currently in Turkey.

However, our sources indicate that the investigative actions are ongoing. In addition to the pyramid’s co-founders, Ruslan Pichugin and Dmitry Chechulin, three others have been placed on the wanted list: Elvira Madiyarova, former star and TV presenter of TNV, her husband Aidar Madiyarov, and the woman’s father Tabriz Akhtyamov.

The Madiyarovs and Akhtyamovs are currently in Turkey and have been there since at least February 2022, judging by their Instagram pages. Madiyarova offers online bachata lessons, helps her followers understand “destiny,” and promotes her Tabrizovna club for women, a paid online course that teaches girls homemaking skills.

Madiyarova studied at KFU, worked for TNV for 7 years, then became a wedding registrar, and then went into the network business. As Madiyarova tells about herself on the social network, she began working there in 2018, initially at City Life, in which the Central Bank found signs of a financial pyramid. Then she “pulled” her husband behind her. At the same time, according to her, TabrizTeam appeared – the father, daughter and her husband worked together, attracted new people to the network business. In 2019, the family bought a Porsche for cash, Madiyarova boasted, and she herself began to earn 400 thousand rubles a month. The family couple was among the top leaders: they were invited to perform in various cities of Russia, the company paid for their holidays in Bali, Madiyarova said. In 2020, she called the TabrizTeam brand a “heritage” or “part of spiritual culture” and was proud of her earnings of already 1.4 million rubles a month, being the “top 5 company”. This is where Madiyarov interrupts the stories about his path in the network business – apparently, all publications mentioning Frendex were prudently deleted.

According to Madiyarova, she lost her team three times in the network business, and City Life allegedly happened the same way: they say, she left the company due to a conflict between the founders. Madiyarova left the only hint of Frendex in one of her publications: “We invested a very decent amount from the sale of Porsche in investments. They wanted to make money. Because they’ve heard another similar company doing well. But we lost even more … ”After that, according to her, she delved into psychology, self-knowledge and therefore began to conduct online courses for women.

Her father, Tabriz Akhtyamov, also actively maintains a page on the social network. “In the past, a teacher, investigator, owner of a jewelry store and leader of MLM,” he wrote about himself in his profile. A referral link for registration is also left there – similar “referrals”, in particular, are used for registrations in financial pyramids and other “fraudulent projects”. The link leads to the website of the law firm, which offers to become its partner and receive passive income of $1.5 thousand “from the very first months”.

Tabriz Akhtyamov Madiyarov herself represented her father during their active “PR” Frendex as a former policeman, her husband as a commando: the family aroused trust among ordinary people. Madiyarova rose to the status of Frendex Group Regional Development Director. After the Frendex scam, the family disappeared from social media for a while. But, as was said, she returned and shows her life – from Turkey.