Hundreds of investors have been burned by investments in the shipping container rental business
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- Hundreds of investors have been burned by investments in the shipping container rental business
Private investors from different cities of the country are demanding from entrepreneur Roman Galaktionov to return the money they invested in his project on renting out sea containers, the victims told Izvestia.
According to them, they invested millions of rubles in the business, about which the man told them in social networks, and at first received income - up to 30% per annum. But at the beginning of the year, the merchant published an announcement in the chat room that payments were being stopped. Now investors are collecting signatures for a class action lawsuit in court and writing statements to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In one chat room alone, in which Roman Galaktionov interacted with investors, there are almost two hundred people, but in reality there may be many more victims, investors say. The damage could amount to hundreds of millions of rubles. Investors now suspect that they were deceived and there was no business with containers.
"We went to one such site in St. Petersburg, where Roman said containers were stored, but we did not find any containers there," they said.
Perhaps we are facing a notorious criminal scheme known to many Russians for seizing 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 has identified such pyramids about 5 thousand. This is 200% more than a year earlier, and about 90% - these are pseudo-investment projects," - said the expert.
Marat Safiulin listed several signs of pseudo-investment projects. First, the absence of a license from the regulator. Secondly, guarantees of high returns like 30% per annum. Thirdly, lack of information transparency of investment activities.
Read more in the exclusive material of Izvestia:
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