Ayaz Shabutdinov's case. How the blogger collected money from aspiring businessmen

The preliminary investigation of the criminal case against blogger Ayaz Shabutdinov has been completed. It has been submitted to the prosecutor's office of the Central Administrative District of Moscow for approval of the indictment. The blogger has been in pre-trial detention for the last 14 months. What is connected with his prosecution and how many victims in the case - in the material "Izvestia".

What Shabutdinov is accused of

- The criminal case against Shabutdinov was initiated under the article on fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). He is charged with 113 episodes. The damage from his activities is estimated at 57 million rubles. The blogger and business coach faces up to 10 years in prison.

- Shabutdinov was detained on November 3, 2023 after returning to Russia from Austria. The next day he was arrested and sent to a pre-trial detention center. Since then, he has been in detention - for almost 14 months. Last time the blogger's arrest was extended until February 27. The refusal to impose a non-custodial measure of restraint was due to the fact that Shabutdinov has citizenship of St. Lucia, as well as valid visas to travel to the United States, UAE and Italy.

- Also charged in the criminal case are former Izhevsk City Duma deputy Vasily Alekseev and his wife Elena. Alekseev was the general director of Like Center, the company selling the course, and he is accused of complicity. In April 2024, the court seized the property of Shabutdinov and Alekseev, the total value of assets is 100 million rubles. Alekseev and his wife fled to the UAE and were put on an international wanted list.

- Shabutdinov is the founder of Like Center, an educational company for businessmen, where Alexeev served as director. The school used aggressive marketing to sell webinars, trainings and marathons for entrepreneurs, promising to teach them how to run a successful business. Shabutdinov's clients complained that they were given the false impression that they would be able to earn a high income after the training.

What Shabutdinov's clients complain about

- One of the victims, Natalia Kalistratova, purchased a premium course for 1 million rubles. She said that the trainees at the Like Center meditated, listened to music and were in a state of euphoria. She suggested that the clients could have been slipped some pills in their coffee, which caused them to change their mood.

- Another victim, Alexander Vilyuga, said that he had purchased Shabutdinov's entrepreneurial courses, but after some time he decided to complete the training. Like Center refused to return the money paid, citing the terms and conditions with which the man was not familiar. The civil court sided with Vilyuga and ordered to return the money along with compensation.

- Another applicant Vadim Baibula first attended Shabutdinov's free webinar, after which he took a training course for 316 thousand rubles in installments for two years. He wanted to complete the training early, but was persuaded to stay and transfer to the "Faculty of Thinking". According to the man, there he was taught to "change the thinking of a poor person into the thinking of a rich person."

What is known about Shabutdinov

- Ayaz Shabutdinov was born on October 21, 1991 in Izhevsk. Four years later, his family moved to the village of Kueda in the Perm region. His father Rifat Shabutdinov owned the Kueda beer and canning plant. The blogger began his entrepreneurial activity by developing his father's lemonade shop, setting a goal of earning 2 million rubles in 2013. He also moonlighted as a custom poetry writer and event organizer. In 2014, he graduated from Udmurt State University.

- Since 2013, Shabutdinov developed the chain of hostels Like Hostel and the chain of coffee shops Coffee Like, also owned barber shops, language schools and travel business. In 2018, Shabutdinov sold a stake in Coffee Like to managers of AST publishing house for 151 million rubles. At that time, the chain owned 453 coffee outlets and had a 40% market share in Russia and the CIS. Shabutdinov covered his successes in business on social networks, becoming a millionaire blogger thanks to this.

- In 2015, Shabutdinov founded Like Center, an educational company for businessmen, through which he sold training courses for entrepreneurs. They told how to launch a successful business using Shabutdinov's own example. The cost of the course was up to 1 million rubles, and in 2022, Like Center's revenue exceeded 1 billion rubles. According to the company's information, more than 20,000 clients have been trained.