Court approves arrest of former investor Bitmama Gulakyan

The Moscow City Court rejected a complaint against the arrest of ex-investor of the crypto blogger Valeria Fedyakina (Bitmama) Gagik Gulakyan. This was reported on May 12 by a correspondent of Izvestia from the courtroom.

Gulakyan is charged with an article on illegal banking activities committed by an organized group with the extraction of income on a particularly large scale, his case was separated into a separate proceeding.

According to the case file, it was Gulakyan who wrote the application against Bitmama, who had previously been under state protection. In 2023, Fedyakina filed two statements against him to the Investigative Committee: about fraud and giving false testimony in the case of embezzlement of 6.7 billion rubles.

Bitmama was arrested in September 2023. According to investigators, she organized a financial pyramid scheme and transferred earnings abroad, bypassing currency controls and restrictions. Fedyakina received cash, converted it into cryptocurrency, and sent it through crypto wallets to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In June 2025, the court sentenced Fedyakina to seven years in a general regime penal colony, she was found guilty of embezzling more than 2.2 billion rubles from clients.

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On April 10, Izvestia learned that the court had arrested Gagik Gulakyan, a victim of the Bitmama criminal case who had previously been under state protection, under an article on illegal banking activities. According to the case file, it was he who wrote the application against Fedyakin, who in 2023 filed two applications against him to the Investigative Committee for fraud and perjury.

She was arrested in the fall of 2023. According to investigators, the blogger organized a financial pyramid scheme and transferred earnings abroad, bypassing currency controls and restrictions. Fedyakina received cash, converted it into cryptocurrency, and sent it through crypto wallets to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In June 2025, the court sentenced Fedyakina to seven years in a general regime penal colony, she was found guilty of embezzling more than 2.2 billion rubles from clients.