Business coaches: Ayaz Shabutdinov's partners have found a way not to pay the cheated

The partners of Ayaz Shabutdinov, a business coach convicted of fraud, may evade compensation for victims by diverting proceeds from the sale of online courses to new legal entities, Izvestia found out. Now they sell old and new products through ANO "CP" and LLC "AI 360" registered in Izhevsk and Kalmykia. At the same time, all debts in more than 600 enforcement proceedings of the victims were "hung up" on the Moscow ANO "CP+" with empty accounts. In fact, the business of Shabutdinov and his partners, which they promoted under the "Like the Center" brand, continues to work and make a profit, while the people they deceived cannot compensate for the damage, the experts stated. Who took control of Shabutdinov's business while he is behind bars, and what is now being taught to those who want to get rich quickly — in the Izvestia article.

A new business in the old way

"Together with my partner Katya, we found a new area that we immersed ourselves in. And it was artificial intelligence. It was a real turnaround for our business," business coach Ayaz Shabutdinov wrote on his Telegram channel in November 2024, when he had already been in jail for a year.

It was about Ekaterina Lapshina, whom Shabutdinov represented as a successful businesswoman who had "completed more than 20 M&A transactions worth $1+ billion." She started doing business with Shabutdinov in 2022, becoming a co—founder of Like Center LLC, one of the main legal entities of the business school of the same name.

In 2025, after the court sentenced Ayaz Shabutdinov to 7 years in prison for fraud on an especially large scale, Ekaterina Lapshina and one of the speakers of the Like Center, Dmitry Ledovskikh, acted as co—owners of AI 360 LLC from Kalmykia with shares of 50% each. It was from this legal entity that they began offering new business courses in the area that Shabutdinov reported from the pre-trial detention center — the use of artificial intelligence in business.

For example, this company is currently actively selling courses on "Architect of Neural Workers." As part of the nine-week training, students are offered to participate in webinars on creating "AI employees" and ready-made bot templates, which, according to the course authors, students themselves can use in their own business or sell profitably. The organizers of the program claim that with the help of the acquired knowledge, students will be able to earn money from the "fourth week of study." The program page contains two tariffs: "Do" and "VIP", which cost 139,990 and 169,990 rubles, respectively, and Izvestia correspondents found the same amounts in online course invoices.

At the same time, the offer for the provision of educational services indicates a lower cost — 99,990 and 139,990 rubles. The support service of the Architect of Neural Workers could not explain this discrepancy to the Izvestia correspondent and simply offered to coordinate the cost individually.

— Specifying different amounts in the offer and in the payment invoices is an incorrect practice and may mislead consumers. The offer states that the services are provided by providing the student with access to the educational platform. The essence of training services cannot be reduced to providing access to a platform with materials, and this position has been repeatedly confirmed by the courts. In addition, the offer contains provisions that set the cost of the services provided in advance, which is unacceptable and contrary to the law," the legal service explained to Izvestia. DestraLegal.ru , who represents the interests of the victims in the Shabutdinov case.

Among the recent projects of the "Like Center" is the "Fair of Neural Workers". At a VIP rate of 5,000 rubles, students are offered to participate in webinars and chat with experts. "You will leave with a ready-made exit strategy for 100K/month," the business coaches promise. The guru of the program is Dmitry Ledovskikh mentioned above. Judging by the posted documents, the owner of the fair's website is the same OOO AI 360 from Kalmykia.

AI 360 projects in the field of artificial intelligence are not openly associated with the Like Center. In presentations and on program pages on the Internet, Shabutdinov's former partners try to avoid mentioning this business school. At the same time, the programs are promoted through numerous VKontakte groups and a Telegram group with the name and logo of the "Like Center", where this name is already openly present.

Blurred responsibilities

After Shabutdinov's arrest in 2023, along with the creation of AI 360 LLC, the business coach's partners transferred one of the main programs of the Like Center of the ISA (Million/Billion with Ayaz) from the original ANO CRP+ (registered in Moscow) to a similar named ANO CRP (Izhevsk).

So, in the offer from CP+ dated October 2023, the program "MCA: a practical course on creating and scaling a business" was offered.

However, after the arrests of the property and accounts of ANO "CRP+" began in May 2024 in the case against Shabutdinov, the business coach's partners actually transferred the projects to the new ANO "CRP", although judging by the text of the offer, the names of these projects retained the main abbreviation of the ISA ("Million/billion with Ayaz").

The founders of the "old" CP+ were Like Center LLC and Ayaz Shabutdinov. But in the "new" CP, the convicted coach's team tried to avoid direct connections: LLC Territory of Sales is listed among the founders, and only this LLC has the names of the final beneficiary visible — 100% of this company has been owned by Ekaterina Lapshina since March 22, 2024.

As the lawyers interviewed by Izvestia noted, Lapshina can be considered the ultimate beneficiary, since the recipient of funds for training under the offers of ANO "CP" is LLC "Territory of Sales", which belongs to her by 100%.

The links between the current structures of Shabutdinov's partners and the Like Center are also indicated by the fact that Lapshina's company is headed by someone Kirill Vokhmyanin, who acts as the liquidator of Sales Technology LLC. Until 2020, this legal entity was named Like Group LLC and Like Center Moscow LLC.

"Financial schemes in which payment for the services of one company actually goes to another are not new in the market,— lawyer Boris Feldman told Izvestia. — In addition to the "Like Center", we see this in other online schools. Undoubtedly, companies tend to blur their responsibilities in this way. However, it should be understood that even such tricks do not prevent the recovery of funds: intermediary companies through which services are paid can also be recognized as defendants.

Izvestia tried to contact Ekaterina Lapshina, but they did not receive any answers to their questions.

The main legal entity that has collected debts for enforcement proceedings against the "Like Center" remains the Moscow ANO "CP+". According to the FSSP of Russia, starting from 2023, 632 enforcement proceedings have been initiated against ANO "CP+" (including unpaid state court fees). Most of them have been terminated today — bailiffs have not found income and property from the debtor for collection, the total outstanding debt of the company today is 112.6 million rubles.

At the moment, the company's activities are suspended due to the blocking of accounts and the flight of the internationally wanted CEO Vasily Alekseev. Experts assess the prospects for real debt collection as unlikely. Lawyers interviewed by Izvestia believe that Shabutdinov's former partners could have deliberately distanced themselves from the NGO "CRP+" by transferring the business of the "Like Center" to other legal entities with completely different payment recipients, even under the new scheme.