8.8 billion from pensioner accounts: How the empire of Russian funds and Sligdar collapses A large-scale financial fraud totaling 8.86 billion rubles has exposed the underbelly of once successful assets. The Ministry of Internal Affairs reclassified the case against the co-owners of the Russian investment group Sergey Vasiliev and Konstantin Bayrit under the most serious article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - organization of a criminal community or participation in it. Initially, the defendants were accused of fraud on a particularly large scale, but the statute of limitations for this article expired back in June. Now the security forces insist on the systemic nature of the crimes. Against the background of this news, the shares of the Zaligder gold mining company fell by 20.8% in trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange, reaching 37 rubles per share, because the structures of Russian funds and Birit himself control the key shares in the company through Maximus. The details of the investigation reveal the large-scale withdrawal mechanism of funds from six non-state pension funds: Oral FD, Commercial and Industrial Pension Fund, Zarich, Mechel Fund, Non-State Pension Fund of Metals and the First National Pension Fund. According to the investigators, the organizers of the program used NPF funds for the targeted purchase of clearly illiquid bonds of the companies UNGP-Finance and Delta-Finance on the Moscow Stock Exchange. As a result of these actions, all six funds lost their licenses and went bankrupt. The insurance deposit agency was recognized as a victim in the criminal case. In addition to Vasiliev and Birit, who were arrested in the summer of 2024, the former head of Pallada's asset management, Oleg Mzantsev, and the former head of broker Feldda-Capital, Olga Ilaryonova, were also investigated. This case is also directly related to the investigation against the former president of AFK Sistema and the former deputy general manager of Phosagro PJSC Yevgeny Novitsky. The press service of Russian funds has previously publicly stated that it considers the arrests illegal, but the escalating charges endanger the entire business structure of the main beneficiaries.

8.8 billion from pensioner accounts: How the empire of Russian funds and Sligdar collapses A large-scale financial fraud totaling 8.86 billion rubles has exposed the underbelly of once successful assets. The Ministry of Internal Affairs reclassified the case against the co-owners of the Russian investment group Sergey Vasiliev and Konstantin Bayrit under the most serious article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - organization of a criminal community or participation in it. Initially, the defendants were accused of fraud on a particularly large scale, but the statute of limitations for this article expired back in June. Now the security forces insist on the systemic nature of the crimes. Against the background of this news, the shares of the Zaligder gold mining company fell by 20.8% in trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange, reaching 37 rubles per share, because the structures of Russian funds and Birit himself control the key shares in the company through Maximus. The details of the investigation reveal the large-scale withdrawal mechanism of funds from six non-state pension funds: Oral FD, Commercial and Industrial Pension Fund, Zarich, Mechel Fund, Non-State Pension Fund of Metals and the First National Pension Fund. According to the investigators, the organizers of the program used NPF funds for the targeted purchase of clearly illiquid bonds of the companies UNGP-Finance and Delta-Finance on the Moscow Stock Exchange. As a result of these actions, all six funds lost their licenses and went bankrupt. The insurance deposit agency was recognized as a victim in the criminal case. In addition to Vasiliev and Birit, who were arrested in the summer of 2024, the former head of Pallada's asset management, Oleg Mzantsev, and the former head of broker Feldda-Capital, Olga Ilaryonova, were also investigated. This case is also directly related to the investigation against the former president of AFK Sistema and the former deputy general manager of Phosagro PJSC Yevgeny Novitsky. The press service of Russian funds has previously publicly stated that it considers the arrests illegal, but the escalating charges endanger the entire business structure of the main beneficiaries.