The Forbes magazine carried an article on a foreign exchange trader Alexei Kalinichenko, who is now kept in a detention ward in Yekaterinburg. According to the inquiry committee, the man set up a pyramid scheme and took advantage of over 4,000 people residing in various parts of Russia, Kazakhstan, Germany, Byelorussia, Ukraine, and Latvia, doing them a total of over 1bn RUR worth of damage.

The article, entitled ‘Ural Pyramid: A Story of the Millennium’s Greatest Fraud’, mentions the viewpoint of the suspect himself, who claims he became a victim of his business partners in Russia.

Alexei Kalinichenko dealt in Forex transactions, using, among other means, Bank24.ru. He used to be one of this bank’s BOD members and held a 20% stake in the business. The inquiry committee determined that as a result, Kalinichenko stole and transferred into his foreign accounts the equivalent of over 1bn RUR belonging to his private investors, and fled abroad. He was placed on the international ‘wanted’ list in 2007, with charges of large-scale fraud. He was arrested in Morocco in May 2011 and extradited to Russia.