Poltava police went after bloggers from the S-Group financial pyramid
Despite the war, fraudsters were actively operating even in the aggressor country.
The organizers of the "pyramid" simultaneously held conferences in Ukraine, temporarily occupied Crimea, and Russia, writes dev.ua.
What happened
Law enforcement officers conducted searches of Instagram bloggers Illya Kramer (1 million followers) and Maryna Manyunenko (Ricci, 138,000 followers), who were actively promoting the financial pyramid S-Group on their pages. They are charged with fraud (Article 190 of the Criminal Code).
Photo from Maryna Manyunenko’s Instagram
"About 10 days after the article was published, one of the S-Group investors informed the editorial office that they could not ’withdraw’ their money from the fund. Initially, blogger Illya Kramer explained that technical work was being carried out on the site, so there were certain problems, but everything would be fixed soon," wrote the online publication "Poltavshchyna," reporting the searches.
Later, the lead bloggers of the fund announced a "large-scale S-Group audit." None of the bloggers could say how long the audit would last or what exactly the auditors were checking.
What is S-Group
In the fall of 2022, advertisements for the financial project S-Group began appearing on social media. They promised clients 15% monthly profit through a 100% automated trading robot with artificial intelligence. S-Group even held conferences and entered the Armenian market. Similar offline events were held in Lutsk, Uzhhorod, Rivne, and Khmelnytskyi, while simultaneously taking place in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other Russian cities. Also in the temporarily occupied Crimea.
Officially, the company has 8 offices, works in 140 countries around the world, and has over 90,000 registered users. The official registered address of the company Sincere Systems is in the United Kingdom: 71-75 Shelton Street, London, Greater London, United Kingdom, WC2H 9JQ. There is no office there, and according to rating-market, it’s just an office that sells registration at its address for 39 pounds.
S-Group positions itself as a "British investment fund" and writes on its website about a "long-term perspective" and a "happy future." However, the project literally appeared in 2021 as a rebranding of the previous financial pyramid Sincere Systems. Last year, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, as part of its monitoring of scam projects, added the company Sincere Systems to a list of dubious financial projects as they received complaints from law enforcement and legal entities regarding the activities of this investment company. They essentially acknowledged that the project has characteristics of a financial pyramid.
How the S-Group financial pyramid works
Newcomers are offered to invest their currency (from $100), and the artificial intelligence will calculate everything for them while S-Group takes a percentage. In general, the company "paints" a bright picture of passive income, where your task is merely to give them money and find new people who would invest more money into the project.
Photo — S-Group
Over a certain period (from 3 months, and ideally from a year), you are supposedly offered to earn and withdraw more money than you invested, only to reinvest it into the system and get even more profit. This is a typical financial pyramid scheme, which exists for a certain time until the project closes, and the money ends up in the hands of those at the top of the pyramid, that is, its organizers. Everyone else is forced to go to court and try to get their money back.
Who might be behind the scams
IT entrepreneur Vadym Mashurov is considered one of the co-founders of S-Group. He is called a "guru of the Ukrainian IT sphere," who became a millionaire at 18. However, with the start of the war, Mashurov disappeared from Ukraine. There is information that he is allegedly on the wanted list in Ukraine, which is why he doesn’t return.
Vadym Mashurov
S-Group is also connected with another IT entrepreneur, Mashurov’s business partner — Roman Felik (originally from Ternopil). Six years ago, he was accused of being involved in the creation of the "Helix" financial pyramid.
07 October 2023 ã., 15:02
