Deception by experience: why investors are attacking the "Russian Ilon Musk"

Roman Galaktionov, a businessman who calls himself the Russian Ilon Musk, offered private investors from all over the country to invest in the purchase and lease of shipping containers at an annual interest rate of 30%. For some time the investments were profitable, but earlier this year the man announced that he was stopping payments and "disappeared from the radar," the victims said. Now they believe that the business of a psychologist, tarotologist, numerologist and entrepreneur, in which they invested tens of millions, was a fake, and massively appeal to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the court. How the scheme worked and whether the depositors have a chance to get their money back - in the material "Izvestia".

What kind of business Galaktionov advertised

Hundreds of private investors demand from businessman Roman Galaktionov to return them millions of rubles, which they invested in his business, associated with the purchase and lease of shipping containers, told "Izvestia" victims. The Togliatti resident, who calls himself the Russian Ilon Musk on the Internet, bought containers and leased them to "federal players."

"We rent only to legal entities, mostly builders take them," the man explained in his blog on social networks. - In such containers you can store shovels, crushed stone, sand, someone takes for car parts. We bought them for 60, sold them for 100, we rent them for 8-10 thousand rubles a month, which brings us 240% annual income.

What exactly these "federal players" are and why companies of this level should rent other people's containers when they can buy their own, the entrepreneur did not explain. But he offered private investors from all over the country to invest in his "profitable and lucrative business", promising high passive income.

For a one-time investment of 100-900 thousand rubles he promised 24% per annum, from 1 million - 30% with monthly payments. In the commercial he showed what the containers looked like and explained that he concluded a loan agreement with his depositors for a year. At the end of this period, the contract is either extended or the investor is paid all his money with the accrued interest.

Roman Galaktionov said that he was the founder of the company Stroymarket and familiarized investors with his biography. He assured that he started getting experience in entrepreneurship from the age of nine - selling bananas and ice cream.

"Then there was the army, the factory, and the loader worked, and digging - all mastered, but realized that it is not mine. In 2006, I realized that it was possible to sell containers and rent them out. At first I dabbled, then more and more sales came, and in 2013 I turned my attention to the regions. I decided to scale up," explained the businessman.

By scaling, the businessman meant opening sites in different regions of the country. He needed these sites as a transshipment point for storing containers and for convenient logistics. He assured investors that they would not have to pay for the delivery of containers to customers - it would be paid by the tenant immediately for the entire lease term. The minimum term is three months, but "some people pay for six months or a year at once".

Roman Galaktionov also assured investors of the reliability of his enterprise - he explained that each investor is assigned a specific container, which he buys "on deposit". Each one has its own individual number, so that it cannot "float away" from the investor. Since "there are no identical numbers," it also cannot be resold to another investor, the businessman said. But just in case, he urged in his videos: "Guys, read the contracts carefully and look at all the risks!".

According to the Rusprofile database, Stroymarket LLC, on behalf of which Galaktionov sold containers, was liquidated in 2023. Now he is listed as the founder of another company - Pravdoed LLC. Its main activity is the development of computer software. Based on the statements, the company looks empty: for the last three years it had no traces of financial activity and there is no cash flow.

The businessman also called himself the Russian Ilon Musk and reported that he was working on a helmet with artificial intelligence. Once, he said, he even participated in the Skolkovo Women's Forum at Skolkovo.

As Christina Paramonova, deputy director of the press center of the Skolkovo Foundation, told Izvestia, Skolkovo Women's Forum, in which Roman Galaktionov participated as a speaker, is not related to the organization, but simply held on the site of the Skolkovo Technopark.

- This is not our forum, but a commercial event, and they rent the venue from us. Roman Galaktionov's name does not mean anything to me. If you go to social networks, then there everyone who can't be bothered, calling themselves our speakers and trying to lean on us," said Christina Paramonova.

"Missingfrom the radar, does not respond to messages ..."

Most of the depositors contacted by Izvestia said they came to Roman Galaktionov through the FinGramm_Family school of financial literacy, which was created by St. Petersburg residents Ekaterina Korobova and Tatiana Skotnikova. According to the victims, the girls acted as intermediaries in his business - all communication and documents went through them. The entrepreneur did not communicate directly with any of his investors.

Thus, one of the investors, Maria Kuznetsova, told Izvestia that she entered into contractual relations with individual entrepreneur Roman Galaktionov in April 2023. This happened after the woman saw a recording of a broadcast with him on the FinGramm_Family page in social networks.

- This is an online project where girls recommended different schemes where to invest money, how to multiply and save it. They suggested the project with containers as a good investment, which is where I fit in," Maria said.

"We have been successfully cooperating with business owner Roman Galaktionov for the third year. We and our alumni have already tested the reliability of this method of investing!" - reads the description of the broadcast.

The essence of the proposed scheme Maria explained as follows: "I invest money in the purchase, Roman rents them out, they float somewhere, transport goods or store and bring him money, and I get my interest from them." According to the victim, she invested 1.4 million rubles in the project and "this amount is hanging there".

All investors concluded loan agreements remotely through intermediaries, in which the entrepreneur is listed as an individual entrepreneur, his electronic signature and passport data are indicated. But none of the investors received the original contracts, they have only scans and checks of money transfers (Izvestia has them). According to them, they had been receiving interest correctly until January of this year.

- But in January, Roman published an announcement in our general chat room that the payments were postponed to a slightly later date, and then said that they stopped, - said the second victim Natalia Danilova. - Penny on a difficult life situation and divorce with his wife. I began to contact representatives - it turned out that he disappeared from the radar and does not respond to messages.

At that time there were 182 people in the chat room of Galaktionov's investors, and it was not all of them who had invested funds. And they "invested" a lot of money.

According to Natalia, she signed a loan agreement for containers in December 2021, and now Roman owes her 1.6 million rubles.

Another victim, Svetlana Karpenko, transferred 5.6 million rubles to Roman Galaktionov.

- Contracts came in messenger through the school of financial literacy from Ekaterina Korobova and Tatiana Skotnikova," she explained. - "My requests to send the originals were answered in correspondence with 'we'll send them soon'. I have been in the project since 2022, but over the years I have never received the documents.

According to another victim, Yana Orlova, who invested 1.2 million rubles, in January this year, "the girls from the school of financial literacy said that Roman stopped contacting us and that further we should solve the problem by applying to law enforcement agencies. Since one of the "sites" that Roman Galaktionov was talking about, according to him, is located in St. Petersburg, concerned depositors went to the address given to them, but did not find any containers there.

- The guards did not even let us in. Moreover, we were told that storing containers here is impossible due to the height," the victims said.

According to them, earlier the businessman constantly sent them photos in the chat room, where he stands against the background of containers. But all this was without addresses. Now hundreds of victims have united in the fight for their blood money, they are writing statements to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and filing lawsuits in court.

Were there containers

The former wife of the businessman Elena Galaktionova told "Izvestia" that she divorced her husband back in July 2023. During the divorce, the former spouses concluded a peace agreement on the division of property, half of which was taken by Roman. Since then, they have not seen each other. According to the woman, the man never dealt with containers.

- Containers were engaged in me, - said Elena Galaktionova. - He sometimes asked to come to my office for a picture, photographed against their background. And then, without my knowledge and demand, he began to cover himself with this picture. I still deal with containers, but it's a small business. And there is no such money there.

According to Elena, since the beginning of the year she started receiving calls from people calling themselves partners of her ex-husband, whom she "never saw in her eyes".

- We no longer had any family, and I did not get involved in his adventures. Everything he did had nothing to do with me," she said.

The woman added that in marriage the man managed to take her surname (earlier he was Korovin). At the same time he did not consult with his wife.

Earlier Roman Galaktionov actively promoted in the media, gave interviews to various, including federal, publications. Judging by the information published in them, he was not always engaged in containers. There was a period in his life when he, in his words, helped people "to become richer and more successful through love for their souls". In publications, he positioned himself as an expert in Xiuzai digital psychology and advised building businesses based on date of birth.

"The digital psychology I practice opens up to modern people what was previously only available to the Chinese imperial family and their cronies. My number of consciousness is 8, therefore, one of my purposes is to keep an eye on the material world and help people realize who they really are," he said in an interview with the Snob portal.

The concept of "digital psychology" in science does not exist, said the head of the scientific and practical center "Virtual Clinic" of the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis Olga Valaeva.

- The combination of numerology and some phenomena of psychological science should be attributed to esoteric practice, not to psychological counseling," she said. - The latter relies on evidence-based practices based on research, theory and methods that have been validated within the scientific community.

An interesting fact of the entrepreneur's biography was a copyright arbitration lawsuit. One of the bloggers sued Roman Galaktionov, claiming that he stole the content of his book on financial freedom, webinar and trademark from him. The Samara Arbitration Court granted the claim and ruled to recover 3.5 million rubles from Roman Galaktionov in favor of the plaintiff.

We are facing a notorious criminal scheme known to many Russians for taking money under the guise of investment activity, believes Marat Safiulin, an expert at the MSU Laboratory of Financial Literacy.

- Now there is a boom of financial pyramids in the country, in 2023 the Bank of Russia identified about 5 thousand of them, - said the expert. - This is 200% more than a year earlier, and about 90% are pseudo-investment projects. A unique number, which is applied to the container, is not a guarantee of reliability. Unfortunately, such information can be falsified.

At first glance, Roman Galaktionov's actions seem to have signs of fraud, believes Ilya Drozdov, a lawyer at Makeev & Partners.

- In case a criminal case is initiated against Galaktionov, the victims will have a real chance to get their money back," said the lawyer. - To do this, the investors must be recognized as victims in a criminal case. Investors can also file a separate civil suit against the entrepreneur for compensation for the damage caused.

"Izvestia" asked for comments to the entrepreneur, but his phone number and personal website were unavailable at the time of publication.