The case of the "crypto guru" Bitmama. How a blogger embezzled billions of rubles

Blogger Bitmama (real name — Valeria Fedyakina) from Simferopol was sentenced to seven years in prison in a penal colony for fraud totaling 2.2 billion rubles, which they must pay to several victims, depending on the damage to each. She organized a pyramid scheme and withdrew money to the UAE through cryptocurrency. What is known about the Bitmama case is in the Izvestia article.

What was Bitmama convicted for?

• Bitmama was sentenced to seven years in a general regime penal colony under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud on an especially large scale"). The court also decided to recover damages from her: 137 million rubles, another 5 million rubles, another 830 million rubles and 563 million rubles — a total of 2.2 billion. The prosecution requested that the maximum penalty be imposed on her, that is, 10 years in prison. The trial took place in the Presnensky Court of Moscow.

• The state prosecutor claimed that Fedyakina used various fraudulent schemes to deceive investors. The girl promised her victims a high income, in particular, through "crypto transfers." Businessmen gave Bitmama cash in Moscow and almost immediately received the equivalent amount abroad in local currency.

• Fedyakina did not take a commission and sometimes even paid extra to her clients so that they would be loyal to her. However, she often returned to clients not their funds, but someone else's funds from other transfers. As a result, a pyramid scheme was formed.

• She transferred the money she fraudulently received into cryptocurrency, which was stored on her crypto wallet in the UAE. The blogger did not comply with currency controls and restrictions. In one episode, the damage amounted to about 800 million rubles. In total, Bitmama, according to the state prosecutor, illegally earned 2.2 billion rubles. However, Valeria Fedyakina's lawyer Yulia Volotskaya admitted that she did not understand where exactly this amount of damage came from.

• For possible repayment of damages, the court seized Bitmama's accounts and assets. Among the victims who believed in the blogger's pyramid scheme were Yota founder Evgeny Roitman and Mikhail Westerfrid, Deputy General Director of Ruscontractor. However, many other customers are unlikely to apply for a refund of their funds. After all, large amounts that are invested in cryptocurrencies and withdrawn abroad are often earned by illegal means.

What is the essence of the scheme?

• Fedyakina started dealing with cryptocurrency in 2018. She claims to have helped clients withdraw large amounts of money abroad through cryptocurrency. She was not registered as an individual entrepreneur, and she also did not have a legal entity. However, it provided loans under the brands Bitmama or Bitmama Finance. All operations were conducted informally. They could only be confirmed by messages in messengers. The transactions were also recorded by CCTV cameras in the offices.

• Bitmama rented an office in Moscow City, and then moved to Novy Arbat. She arranged meetings with some clients in the luxury apartments of the Four Seasons Hotel near the Kremlin, which she rented. In Dubai, she bought a floor in the five-star Bulgari Reserve Dubai and drove a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, which costs about 60 million rubles.

• In 2023, the blogger's company's capital amounted to several million dollars. Bitmama claims that she played on the difference in cryptocurrencies in the exchangers of several countries, and this does not violate the law. She never admitted her guilt.

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• According to Fedyakina, her partners in the crypto business are allegedly to blame for everything — unemployed investor Gagik Gulakyan (it was he who wrote a statement against the blogger and was recognized as a victim in the case) and his friend Vahram Stepanyan, who lived in Dubai. At first, they all transferred large amounts of money from the Russian Federation to the UAE and back. Fedyakina's personal PR assistant, Raisa Kalyagina, told the investigation that Gulakyan brought 200-300 million rubles a day to the office at first, and then the amounts reached 1.5 billion rubles a day.

• Then Gulakyan and Stepanyan, according to Bitmama, began to take part of the funds for themselves, explaining this with the desire to increase income through other investment schemes. As a result, the company had a cash gap of about $40 million. Fedyakina, when she was already detained, wrote statements against Galukyan to the Investigative Committee about fraud and defamation. But the proceedings in these cases have not yet begun.

• Gulakyan's lawyer, Ivan Mironov, said Bitmama was "lying." He noted that Gulakyan owes the blogger nothing. According to him, Bitmama went to prison because she persuaded investors to use her services without taking a commission or even paying extra for clients. As a result, when she gained a large base of loyal investors, and had about $200 million in her account, she simply refused to pay the bills. Fedyakina's lawyers, in turn, claim that Gulakyan, not Bitmama, embezzled the money.

How Bitmama lived with her child in jail

• Bitmama was detained in Moscow back on September 15, 2023. Shortly before that, the blogger was going to fly to Dubai, where she already had a residence permit.

• The girl was sent to jail despite the fact that she was six months pregnant at the time of her arrest. She gave birth to a child in the hospital at the Pechatniki detention center. For the first years of her life, the girl was in the same cell with her mother in SIZO No. 6, where only women with children are kept.

• Such cells for mothers with children are designed for eight people. They have mats and baby care supplies. Children are regularly examined by a pediatrician. Mothers can bathe their babies at any time. There is also a playroom for children in the isolation ward.

• In January 2025, Fedyakina filed an appeal with a request to change the measure of restraint to non-custodial. However, her application was rejected.

• In May 2025, lawyers announced that the blogger's mother was recognized as poor. At the same time, she has three minor children. The defense asked the court to return to Fedyakina's mother the money she had previously taken as a loan. The judge has attached this information to the case, but will decide on the money after sentencing.

What is known about Fedyakina

• Bitmama was born in March 1995 in Simferopol, received a higher education. At the age of 19, Bitmama met the deputy head of the Party of Regions branch in Mariupol, Peter Ivanov, and moved with him to Moscow. Then the couple broke up.

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• Until 2018, she managed to work in various places in the capital, including a fitness club. In 2018, she became interested in cryptocurrency. When the business started making money, her brother Alexander came to Moscow to visit her.

• Peter Ivanov, who continued to communicate with her after the breakup, said that "she was not friends with numbers." The man invested $270 thousand in cryptocurrency on the advice of his ex-girlfriend, but did not earn it.

• The blogger often turned to astrologers for help in solving life problems, in particular, since 2022 she has constantly asked Inna Kornienko for advice. In May 2023, Bitmama sent her 20 million rubles as a thank you for the fulfilled forecasts.