- Jul 18, 2021

Dark clouds over Finiko

Was it an unexpected flash of lightning out of the blue, or should we have seen it coming?

What is actually going on?

The answer: a lot!

We don't yet know exactly what all this will mean; much will become clear in the days to come.

In order to keep everyone a bit informed, I started, on this otherwise sunny Sunday morning, to write down and map out the news that I see and hear, in the hope that I can put everything into perspective.

This post may be seen as a current state of affairs, of the developments that are going on, a works in progress as well, with for the moment still a lot of uncertainties, unrest, but also a little bit of hope.

I will update this post from day to day and, if necessary, from hour to hour.

My introduction to Finiko was in June 2020.

During my initial research about their company and products, I was immediately struck by the complete openness and transparency that was exhibited during monthly major live events and almost daily webinars and open discussions through management's personal social media accounts.

Countless numbers of people were empowered to make their dreams come true, buy cars at 35% cost, pay off debt through their Live products and make returns of over 20% per month with CTI products and CBS Cash back services.

I have also seen Finiko work hard on continuous improvements to their websites and platforms.

There was little doubt that Finiko was a very interesting investment platform, with of course as with any investment the necessary risks and few guarantees, but still exceptional and well worth the effort.

First signs of regulatory risks 🚩

Then, suddenly in June, the news came out that, due to regulations and compliance requirements, a number of changes had to be made. Payments could no longer be made in BTC as we were accustomed to; there was a switch to a "transparent" FNK token.

In retrospect, we should possibly have considered this abrupt change as a first 🚩 red Flag. In three previous posts, I have tried to make sense of this based on the explanations and explanations that have been presented:

It all seemed to make perfect sense, there was a clear offensive by governments towards initiatives and practices of crypto-exchanges and payment platforms. See the Chinese offensive towards BTC miners and the fiat restrictions imposed on Binance. I personally had my years-old Coinbase account unilaterally terminated at the end of May without any reason being given.

Withdrawals suspended

On July 12, a second disturbing message appeared, which you could possibly consider as the 🚩 second red flag. Withdrawals and payouts would be stopped by (Anti Money Laundering) regulations, because Finiko could not prove the origin of the investments we made at that time. We were asked to send documents such as tax returns, bank statements or pay slips.

See my explanation of this on my Telegram channel: https://t.me/finikoOverzicht/167

The payments would be restored after the new back office and website would go online, scheduled after the weekend of July 18.

🚩 Third Red Flag

Amidst the many uncertainties, CEO Kyrill Doronin did make it clear in a call on July 16 via his Instagram account that the whole situation and the actions and deeds involved had unfortunately led to a conflict between himself and his 3 partners, Edvard Sabirov (head of trading), Zygmunt Zygmuntovich (head of IT) and Marat Sabirov (Crypto strategy). The reason for this conflict remains unclear to this day.

In that call of July 16, Kyrill made it clear that he had lost contact with his partners, possibly they had been arrested he thought. He also said that a number of employees had been dismissed without his knowledge, especially staff working for his Doronin health project and his Russian Charity project.

He also claimed that he no longer had access to some of the Finiko broker accounts.

Hope or false promise?

Clearly uncomfortable with the situation, Kyrill announced that he would do everything in his power to repay the participants' investments in Finiko. Since then, he has appeared daily on Instagram to explain the progress of his "Recovery Plan," consisting of the following points:

📌 KIRILLS RECOVERY PLAN July 16📌

▪️Kirill says that with the help of top leaders they have amassed additional capital to start generating money from it soon.

▪️The profits will initially be distributed to the first priority group - the people who signed up in the last 4-5 months and have not yet received any results, so they could receive back what they invested.

▪️In the coming days, he will provide more details on the order and method of repayment.

▪️Kirill says, "I am going to work to rectify the situation. The case is like a catastrophic earthquake. But I will not shy away from my obligations."

▪️He plans to set up a company controlled by him and run the profits into the liquidity of the token.

▪️He is trying to restore access to Finiko's capital and launch a refund.

▪️He is looking for a way to get in touch with the FNK team to work on the token, and manage it so that the money does not end up with the speculators.

▪️He continues to look for a way to communicate with the 3 co-founders to restore work with the platform.

Credible or not?

It should be clear that the three red flags mentioned above, together with the vagueness and limited information (mostly in Russian) have led to serious concerns, frustrations and anxiety among the many members.

Emotions are running high, see e.g. the incessant flow of messages (more interpretations than facts, by the way) on the English-language Finiko Telegram groups.

The word Scam has been mentioned several times and many see a plot, an evil intent, in the past events. Understandable.

Personally, I think that if management of Finiko wanted to get away with our money, they could have done it much earlier, much easier and with larger amounts.

Also the CEO still shows his face daily and does his best to answer questions.

On the other hand, I find it incomprehensible that they, knowing that there were problems, or would be problems, did not prevent us from making deposits in BTC, but frustrated our intended withdrawals in BTC.

Furthermore, we must not forget that there are at least 3 red flags at the root of the crisis situation that has arisen and that can therefore be anything but reassuring.

I am convinced that it is too early to speak of a scam. That would be the most brilliant fraud of all time.

Personally, I rather think that Finiko was unexpectedly, but seriously hit by a number of, for us so far unknown, actions of Russian regulators that may have resulted in the blocking of a number of Finiko accounts and a stressful situation for the management.

It is known that President Putin signed very strict legislation on July 1.

Under this law, the Central Bank of Russia is authorized to restrict access to certain Internet resources. It is possible that this legislation was a reason for Finiko to announce the drastic changes mentioned above at an earlier stage.

🚩 The conflict between the CEO and his 3 partners, probably caused by the stressful situation, is an additional misfortune that does not really improve the situation.

😊 The only bright spot is Kyrill Doronin's commitment that he feels seriously responsible for the course of events and wants to do everything possible to rectify the situation.

The other side of the story:

The remaining 3 members of management did issue a vague and therefore unclear statement yesterday, full of contradictions and completely devoid of convincing evidence or arguments:

1. Edward's accounts on the brokerage accounts would have been blocked due to irregularities related to FINIKO's public claim and a lawsuit in Kazan.

2. They claim that they have no founding rights, the 3 are only "employees" and not partners.

3. They indicated that they provided Kirill and his team with full access on July 1.

For now, I retain faith in Kirill. Admittedly, I think he has made some big mistakes, especially regarding the move to FNK and the fact that he has let so much control over important aspects of the company pass him by.

But we simply cannot do without trust in this life. We trust our wife, our husband, our friends, etc. Sometimes that trust is violated. Does that mean we never trust again? I believe in continuing to trust people, but I also like to check. That's all part of the risk.

I am grateful for this lifeline that Kirill throws.

LATEST NEWS, NEW FINIKO: (July 17)

▪️Kirill has already set up a new company, Omfinom, this as extra security in case he cannot restore contacts and organization within the original company.

▪️He has already assembled about 40 staff members, including programmers and traders.

▪️His company will not use FNK. They will use BTC and USDT.

▪️He said earlier that they could not use BTC because of legalization, so there is a contradiction there.

▪️The purpose of this new Finiko is to pay back people who have suffered losses.

▪️Payback in this context means that if you deposited say $20,000 in the old Finiko and took $5,000 profit then the loss is $15,000 and so $15,000 is the amount to be paid back.

▪️Investors who want to participate in this redemption process will receive 0.50% dividend. The remaining profit will be split between the traders and the company, leaving the funds available for the redemptions.

▪️Kirill controls the portfolios for this new company.

▪️He says he takes his responsibility seriously and will continue to support charitable groups (Charity) in Kazan in addition to refunds.

▪️Kirill is figuring all this out at the fly, so things may change and evolve. He says he wants to fulfill his responsibilities to us.

Current Situation:

The website thefiniko.com as well as the mirror website on which the new back office should appear, cabinet.thefiniko.com are all still online, as is the app.

Many influential investors are making attempts to repair and find solutions. Finiko's trading methods and profit results are still a given.

The proposal is to reunite to arrange redemptions through the original platform. Using common sense.

Doronin says he agrees. And asks the 3 guys to join.

We have to wait for further reports and news.

It is still early day and much is still unclear.

Latest : Zigmund gave Kiril access to Finiko platform and keys to rest of the platform

Monday, July 19:

Through his IG account, Kirill has announced that he wants to start repaying the investments made this week. This is positive in principle, it is at least something, but it is not enough to speak of fair play as far as I am concerned.

The commitment is that the investment, minus the withdrawals, will be repaid in full.

Example: someone who invested $ 1,000 in January and let it rise to e.g. $ 2,500 now through compounding and who withdrew $ 400 in June, could now expect a payout of (only) $ 600. He would have lost his profit, but his initial investment would have been returned.

There is still much uncertainty about this, so expect more clarity in the coming days. There is also talk of an option to make this repayment grow again at 0.5% per day.

For all of this, Kirill in no time set up and founded a separate company from the one he shared with his 3 original partners.

📌 REPAYMENT PROCESS 📌

▪️Kirill apologizes that this process is not perfect and they will correct things as they go along. But it is the quickest way he could manage to start this refund process.

▪️This is a first step in building a new company, regaining trust from initially the last members to join, who had only deposited money and had not been able to withdraw anything yet.

▪️Kirill's team will call, via WhatsApp, each person who needs to be repaid.

▪️This means that you must have WhatsApp installed on the same phone with the number you entered in your Settings (Settings) in your Finiko account.

▪️Your Whatsapp privacy settings must be set to allow incoming calls from anyone.

▪️Kirill's team is working backwards from July, to June, calling people who have made deposits, but haven't had a chance to withdraw their seed money.

▪️The payouts will be in BTC.

▪️According to Kirill's plan - they hope to pay back all those affected within six months.

▪️This is an important cautious start. Kirill knows that the process is not perfect and there will undoubtedly be adjustments. There is very little clarity at this stage.

▪️Message on July 22: The first payments were executed today, payment statements were published and BTC was received.

▪️Check the settings on the settings page of your Finiko account. Check that you can still be reached on the phone number registered to you and also check that you have entered a correct BTC wallet address for the refunds to be received.

▪️Make sure that when you expect the call you have the wallet address plus your Finiko ID number to hand for verification.

▪️The procedure for refunds is still in the midst of adjustments right now.

In addition, it may be some time before you are called, first in line are the entrants from July 2021.

▪️To be clear, if you have withdrawn more money than you have deposited, you are not qualified for a refund and you will not be called. There is no information yet what will happen to the remaining value in CFR or products in your Finiko account!

There is also absolutely no clarity yet on the location and status of working capital (our investments). Who is managing this? Which part has disappeared, or been frozen and which part is still available, if any, and in case of seizure, who will recover it?

Wednesday, July 21:

The promised refunds have now started, which is good to know and nice to report. It now concerns only the last 12,000 members who became members of Finiko in the period from July 2 to 15. These will be contacted by Finiko and invited for a verification call via WhatsApp.

This will be followed by the people who joined in June and then it will move closer and closer to Jan and then 2020.

This should be seen initially as the slow beginning of a recovery, an initiative of CEO Kirill Doronin who is eager to move forward.

With newly obtained money from Kirill himself plus some great team leaders plus also the return on that, a start is now being made as soon as possible to make everyone "neutral", so that people have been paid out about as much as what they once put in.

This is of course still far from sufficient for us, but Kirill who emphatically wants to continue with his original plans, will have to repair the trust in the first instance with highest priority of course.

This repayment action, however minimal, contributes the most to that according to him.

After that there must be conclusive answers as to where our money has gone, who is managing it and, in the event of seizure, a text and explanation about this plus a plan indicating how the money can be made available again. This is a complex matter that will take some time, but Kirill understands that he cannot restart without resolving this as well.

But the full recovery starts with a first step and that step is being taken now.

Friday, July 23 2021

Sufficient evidence has now been received from people who have walked through the refund program in a positive manner and actually received BTC back.

But beware, 1 swallow does not make a spring. This only concerns members who only joined after July 2, 2021 and it also concerns only a small part of the investment made.

As it looks now, the total amount will be repaid in 10 small steps and this will also take a considerable time.

As soon as it becomes clear where and with whom the disappeared funds from our main investment have gone, the intention is explicitly to accelerate the payments.

The CEO Kirill Doronin has indicated that everyone will be repaid in full.

For the time being, however, repayment will only involve the difference between Deposits and Withdrawals, i.e. the real loss, which will be brought to zero.

Currently only a relatively small amount of money is available for this purpose, but until the principal is released, this will be supplemented by 50% of the earnings from Kirill's new program "Omfinom".

It may be hard to believe, but it seems that more than 100,000 people have already signed up for this. As it is, there are hardly any alternatives to be found with a similar earnings model to Finiko and people are eagerly looking for returns.

I can't recommend this Omnifom to anyone yet because I find the risks far too high at the moment. However, I am going to create an Omniform account myself and also invest a certain amount in it. I accept the risks for myself, but find it of value to study this program intensively to see if there are opportunities here to get our money back from Finiko faster and more successfully. I will share my findings here with everyone as soon as possible.

Monday, July 26 2021

Refund form for people who have changed their BTC address or phone number.

You only need to fill in this form if your wallet address or phone number do not match the values you previously entered on the settings page of your Finiko account.

▪️Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScvDeu6093K5yM7FLUwFqcKrnbm4JYImU3YHB3g_5wPqgqXDA/viewform

▪️Question 1: Are you a Finiko partner? Answer = Yes

▪️Question 2: Your email address:

▪️Question 3: Your full name

▪️Question 4: Your Finiko ID. This is a number. You can find it at the top left of the screen under your name. You can also find it on the "Affiliate Program" page. It is the number at the end of your referral link.

▪️Question 5: Your BTC wallet address is the address where you want to receive your refund.

▪️Question 6: Your phone number

▪️Question 7: Deposits amount is the total of all CFRs you have ever purchased. So if you bought 1,000 CFRs in February and another 3,000 in March, your total is 4,000

▪️Question 8: Total CFRs withdrawn. Add up your withdrawals.

▪️Question 9: Your sponsor ID. Ask your sponsor or leave blank.

LAST NEWS: The use of the above form would not be necessary now. They say they have now found a better solution for this, but I don't know which one. Until then, I will leave the above instructions in place.

I would like to make it even more clear who gets refunds and who doesn't:

⚡️ HOW IS YOUR REFUND CALCULATED?

The amount of ALL deposits minus The amount of ALL withdrawals = The amount refunded

ALL Deposits means ALL external deposits made in your account. Regardless of what products you subsequently used them for (ctis, .products, life, etc).

⚡️ HOW DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOU HAVE DEPOSITED IN TOTAL?

1. Go to your Finiko account page.

2. On the right side you will find 'Operation All' drop down menu

3. Select 'Crediting'.

4. These are all the deposits you have ever made. Calculate the total.

⚡️ HOW DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOU HAVE WITHDRAWN IN TOTAL?

1. Go to your Finiko account page.

2. On the right side you will find 'Operation All' drop down menu

3. Select 'Withdrawal'.

4. Calculate the total of all withdrawals. NOTE: If you have had your withdrawal suspended (Suspended. check this in the applications) - do NOT add that amount to the total.

⚡️ AFTER YOU HAVE DONE THE CALCULATIONS ABOVE ⚡️

If the amount to be refunded IS POSITIVE - this is the amount you can expect to get back.

If it is NEGATIVE, you are not eligible for a refund at this stage, as you have broken even and have not lost any of your investments. (This may change, we don't know).

Example:

If you deposited $10,000 in April 2020. The sum remained, and in April 2021 you withdrew $1000. And made no other withdrawals.

= your refund is then $9000.

If you deposited $10,000 in April 2020 and have continued to withdraw money since then - the amount of your withdrawals exceeds the deposited amount = you are not eligible for the refund.

▪️At this time, 10% of the refundable amount will be paid minus a 3% commission. This will be followed by 9 additional payments.

(Refunds are thus split into 10 portions : 10 x 10%).

▪️Although repayment for those who did not break even is the priority, a solution is eventually being planned for those who made a profit with withdrawals as well. The details of that plan are not known at this time.

Tuesday, July 27 2021

▪️The Finiko website has not been accessible since this morning.

This was also the case last week, but access was restored then.

It is unclear whether the inaccessibility of our back office may further complicate the refunding process. In any case, work is being done to get the website back online as soon as possible. All data has been secured on the servers.

OMFINOM

More and more clarity is coming out about the new company founded by CEO Kirill Doronin. Its main goal is to refund Finiko members, but now it also becomes clear that this company Omfinom will continue with investment products based on Finiko's trading model. The following points were already revealed yesterday during a Zoom meeting with Omfinom's management:

✅1. The official presentation of the new company Omfinom is planned for this week. At the moment, a presentation of Omfinom and new products of the company is being worked on. Kirill will present this start of the company.

✅2. A reinsurance company will be operational within 4 months.

An external insurance company that will refund participants' deposit in case of force majeure.

✅3. Important! To ensure the funds of the members, there will be a mandatory verification for participants, which is also necessary to legalize the activities of the company.

✅4. The direct transfer of deposits from Finiko to OmFiNom is not yet possible. This option will be announced later.

✅5. The new company adheres to the ANTI-scam model.

✅6. There are two products:

The return on the first Invest program is 0.5-0.6% on a business day, i.e. 2.5% per week.

✅7. The return on the second Safe program is 0.11% on a business day, i.e. 29% per year.

📌 There is a .pdf available first with some info about Omfinom and its financial products.

Om Finom English Presentation

.pdf

Download PDF • 88KB

Thursday, July 29. 2021

Created a personal account on Omfinom (which is described as a relaunch of Finiko) yesterday and am looking into the products. There is an option offered to have the delta refunds (Deposits - Withdrawals) transferred from Finiko to Omfinom, where they double in 6 months. If this can be realized it might seem to be heading in the direction of an acceptable solution for the time being, but much is still unclear.

I cannot advise anyone at this stage to actually invest in Omnifom, which already has over 150,000 new subscribers.

You can also use this link to create your own account and have a look around, open the link with Google Chrome and the Russian will be translated for you.

▪️In his last zoom call with major investors, Kirill indicated that Omfinom is now working with 3 teams that can check each other and he himself has full control over the binance accounts. He is in the process of granting an independent auditor access for the purpose of audits and verifications.

Furthermore, he has appointed a deputy who can continue operations and refunds to Finiko investors in his absence.

If Kirill does not refund, he will go to jail under Russian or Kazakh laws. He is already receiving threats.

▪️According to a statement from a former executive who is still in contact with Kirill:

Our Finiko funds on broker and exchange accounts were controlled 80% by Edvard Sabirov and 20% by Marat Sabirov. It is said to be more than $1 billion.

At least there are millions left in the FNK liquidity pool, of which it is still unclear who has access to it.

▪️It is still only the CEO Kirill Doronin who appears in public and is active. Even after Kirill made several offers to the other founders to work together to fulfill Finiko's contracts and their promises, none of the other founders have responded so far.

▪️Multiple people have now independently indicated that they have received their July investments back in BTC.

🔻 Conclusion: so far no one knows the truth yet! It needs time.

Saturday, July 31 2021

▪️It was announced yesterday that Kirill Doronin was detained by the police during a voluntary interrogation and is being held for several additional days as a precautionary measure.

According to his lawyer, the arrest has not yet been formally confirmed.

Doronin himself did not admit his guilt in court and said that work is currently underway to return money to the platform's participants.

▪️According to the way Finiko has operated, there is no case of a ponzi or pyramid scheme under Russian law. However, the problem is that Finiko operated for a while without a valid banking license and the charge is therefore "Fraud".

If this ever resulted in a conviction the maximum sentence is 10 years.

▪️Vladimir (10 stars) reported that the team will continue to pay the refunds and Omfinom can continue to function as planned under the leadership of the previously appointed deputy. It has just been confirmed by several sources that people were called, even after Kirill's arrest, regarding the repayment and that BTC was also paid and received.

▪️I hold divided thoughts on this.

On the one hand, I regret that it may now become more difficult for Kirill to continue with the planned refunds.

On the other hand, I think that the way Kirill had initially set up the repayment process may be difficult to satisfy.

It is a joke, to think that a $2 million initially made available will be enough to raise sufficient for a quick and full repayment.

So much more is needed. At least 100 times that much.

So Kirill may be forced to choose between $200 million or 10 years in prison. Under pressure, everything liquefies.

▪️Furthermore, I wisely refrain from further comment at this time. There are too many conflicting messages and plenty of emotions on social media. That leads to nothing.

Only the facts should count now and as far as that's concerned I can enumerate a nice list that speaks in favor of Doronin, as soon as we draw logical conclusions from it.

For now, I will wait and see what else emerges and keep a close eye on the case.

Monday, August 2 2021

▪️Omfinom is still working at the moment despite the situation.

▪️Today evidence was received again from people who have recovered their July deposits, this time also from outside Russia.

▪️Kirill's lawyers believe that Kirill has not broken any laws.

They will provide an update on the situation later this week.

▪️Till we get the official information - people will continue to speculate plenty and some will even present their ideas or opinions as "facts" or "evidence" without knowing the difference.

Keep in mind that there is a lot of fake news circulating. I do my best to only include facts here that are verifiable.

Saturday, August 7 2021

There is still much uncertainty. In part, this will be due to the fact that the Kirill Doronin has been remanded in custody for the time of the investigation. Together with his lawyers, he is making efforts to prove his alleged innocence.

It is also strange that virtually nothing has been heard from his 3 previous partners. According to Kirill, they are the ones who have kept access to the many Finiko accounts, which, incidentally, have already been partially blocked by exchanges and brokers for security reasons.

One can assume that the information provided by Kirill and his lawyers during the investigation will lead to them also being questioned in order to determine their level of integrity. Hopefully this will be clarified before the end of the month. It is important to know who controls the money now.

There is also confirmation from the previously appointed deputy that he is mandated to continue the refunding activities. However, I myself am taking into account delays just to be on the safe side.

Thursday, August 19 2021

As I anticipated last week, the Russian government's restrictions on freedom in relation to Kirill Doronin have meant that repayments that had just started have currently stalled again. Kirill hopes that these can be restarted within a week or two.

Repayments remain Kirill's best defense by which he can restore his reputation by repaying investors their money. For details on a resumption, however, we will have to wait for further news, but it seems to depend heavily on whether or not Kirill remains in custody.

Meanwhile, many thousands of participants in Finiko have signed a petition in which they, as investors, underline that Finiko is absolutely not a pyramid game and ask the authorities to end the criminal prosecution and release Kirill Doronin from pre-trial detention so that "he can continue to carry out activities for the return of funds."

During interrogations, Kirill answered questions and reaffirmed that he was not guilty of what he was charged with. He referred to the internal problems with his 3 partners that arose after accounts were blocked by brokers and stock exchanges, as a result of which a number of events took place beyond his observation and consent.

This has now led to the arrest of his 3 partners - Zygmunt Zygmuntovich and Edward and Marat Sabirov.

It is strange that this has taken so long, especially since they were in charge of access to the Finiko trading accounts.

What is even more bizarre is the fact that, as it turns out, the 3 partners initially even cooperated with the judicial authorities in drafting an indictment against Doronin.

So now, based on the latest information, justice has changed the status of the 3 to being accomplices. The police are looking for them internationally.

In recent weeks more and more news has become known although still very little from official sources, so we have to be careful in drawing conclusions.

Understandably, many people are becoming impatient and frustrated. There are risks that we will lose money, through no fault of our own. All we can do is stay tightly on top of things and follow them closely, because there are also bright spots.

The only person who has tried to pay back our money so far is the CEO Kirill.

I personally don't expect much news in the short term and am afraid that we will have to wait for the three hiding partners to surface and subsequently a possible court hearing.

It has been shown that Finiko still has large assets and funds. Also Kirill Doronin himself, always a successful and respected businessman still has millions at his disposal.

My objective opinion is that Kirill is also certainly to blame. The supposedly known information about the blocking of the accounts could and should have been shared with us at a much earlier stage.

Until the blockade, Finiko has (in my opinion) always conducted a transparent and honest business.

Further investigation and reporting will have to reveal exactly who is responsible for the dramatic change in direction we have seen in recent weeks.

Friday, September 10 2021

The sources I am following regarding Finiko have not led to any new insights since my last post on August 19. Most sources have also indicated they expect little news until September 28, unless results are announced before that date due to a possible first interrogation of the 3 sought partners.

Wednesday October 13 2021

Media silence

Since my last post on September 10, there have been few reportable posts about Finiko online. Many Telegram channels have been closed until further notice, as they were filled only with distressed messages from disappointed and frustrated users. In any case, there are sadly few positive developments to report.

The only sources of information I can draw from at this point are a few very large Russian Telegram groups, where the language is of course a problem and I must be apprehensive about potentially misleading fake news.

The most useful Telegram group "Finiko English Community" which was run by a certain Gary (@TheCryptoAnalyzer) also announced to stop providing its information.

This Gary indicated that he expects few breakthroughs in the short term, reason for him to end his reporting.

He now believes that the best chance for investors to see any return on their investment is through a lawsuit. However, that is a rather lengthy process that could potentially take several years and whose outcome is difficult to predict.

Our funds have already been blocked on the exchanges and broker accounts, and so they would be relatively safe.

It was also recently announced that Kirill Doronin's pre-trial detention was extended by 2 months until November 28. (Newsarticle)

This is both good news and bad news. It means that it could be at least another 2 months before there is more clarity. On the positive side, the court is taking the case very seriously and wants to get all the information including access to our funds.

There is a group of leaders, mainly in Russia and Kazakhstan, who are trying to get Kirill out of prison sooner with house arrest if necessary, so that Kirill can try to resume paying the deposits.

Kirill has consistently indicated that he will repay these deposits as soon as he is given the opportunity to do so.

When questioned, Kirill indicated that his 3 former partners have parts of the money at their disposal, to the extent that they are not blocked.

An arrest warrant has been issued for the 3 partners.

A post about this is on a Russian news channel, which you can read using the Google Chrome browser with its built-in automatic translation option.

I will wait until Kirill's pre-trial detention ends and see what happens then. Who knows, maybe he will be released and can start the repayment process again, or maybe the judge will act quickly and order that the brokers accounts be unblocked and give control to someone to distribute the assets. Anything is possible, but we will have to be patient until at least the end of next month.

Whatever is decided, I will announce it here then.

Further, I have no intention of ceasing my postings at any point, it may just take a little longer for any meaningful developments to be reported.

Thursday, January 13, 2022

There is still little news to report.

Kirill Doronin, CEO of Finiko is still in protective custody.

On the one hand, this is good, as it shows that the Russian authorities are not going to let themselves be taken for a ride. Kirill and his ex-partners will first have to be more open before restrictive measures are lifted.

The judicial authorities want to know exactly where the embezzled money has been deposited.

On the other hand, the strict detention does mean that there are still few concrete options for Kirill to begin making his intended and promised restitution payments.

Monday, April 4. 2022

Finiko leaders are released under economic amnesty.

As a result of the sanctions Russia faces

in Ukraine, Russia is reaching out to its detained

entrepreneurs in hopes of improving their economies in the process.

This proposed new law is an amnesty for entrepreneurs

who have been convicted of economic crimes.

I don't know if Kirill will be released. No timetable has been

established. If he is released, we will see if he still wants to pursue his goal of

his earlier goal of returning capital to those who suffered net losses.

Source publication found at: https://panorama.pub/news/sozdatelej-finiko-vypustyat-na-svobodu-po-ekonomicheskoj-amnistii

Translation:

"Kirill Doronin and his colleagues from the Finiko management team will go free after the Duma approved a law granting amnesty to businessmen convicted of economic crimes. The drafters of the law, MPs Arseniy Sizov and Dmitry Kichin, argue that the amnesty was a forced measure necessary to stabilize the Russian economy in the face of sanctions.

The amnesty will be converted into a lighter punishment in the form of compulsory labor for the state. If the ex-prisoners fail to comply, they may be returned to their place of detention.

"We had to take such a step in the current economic reality. We need, now more than ever, young, creative people who can make money with literally nothing. And this is absolutely not the time to split into own people and outsiders and remember old grievances. We must all unite to resist the tsunami of Western sanctions," said MP Dmitry Kichin.

Doronin and the other founders of Finiko will have to launch the domestic economy within three years. The entrepreneurs will focus on attracting foreign investment to Russia based on existing experience. The results will be measured by the number of jobs created and an increase in the country's GDP."

It now remains to be seen what the concrete implications of this arrangement will be and whether and to what extent we as investors in Finiko will be able to benefit from it.

In addition, it remains to be seen whether the above publication is truthful.

Truth, as we have experienced in recent days, is a poorly defended value in Russia.

Thursday, June 9, 2022

There is still no real groundbreaking news regarding Finiko.

In short, the state of affairs:

Kirill is still in custody. He has been there for 10 months, currently awaiting trial or decision.

On July 30, it will be one year since his arrest.

The three amigos (his former partners) have still not been arrested, and therefore no money has been recovered.

By the way, the Russian investigators seem to be taking their work seriously and excuse their lack of progress due to the scope of the investigation and its complexity.

Kirill must now realize that he had insufficient control over exactly what was going on in his multi-billion dollar company.

If that were all, then perhaps he could only be labeled naive.

But there is more to it than that. The misguided actions he took when he learned that brokers had frozen their funds, and he chose to promote the FNK currency as a conversion option rather than come clean, are particularly culpable and he is severely to blame.

He should have made sure that new deposits were stopped and let us know what was going on. From that point on, he effectively turned Finiko into a ponzi.

For that, he will probably be convicted.

Apart from that, even if the hidden sums of money were now located we are presently facing European sanctions, which mean that transactions with Russian banks and companies are not allowed for the time being. ☹️

In the meantime, I continue to follow everything as best I can. Small noteworthy posts I usually prefer to post on Telegram. See: https://t.me/finikointernat, but our patience is being tested quite a bit in the meantime.

Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022

Co-shareholders Finiko traced in UAE.

Zygmunt Zygmuntovich and Edward Sabirov, who were on the Russian prosecutor's wanted list because of their responsibilities within Finiko, are believed to be hiding in Dubai.

While Kirill Doronin is in prison, his "right-hand man" Zygmuntovich and two traders Edward and Marat Sabirov, the investigation believes, fled via Belarus to the shores of the Persian Gulf. This was announced in court today.

Edward and Marat Sabirovs , as well as Zygmunt Zygmuntovich , were arrested in absentia on August 27 on charges of fraud.