The court passed a sentence on scandalous Valeria Fedyakina, who became the shooter in the case of embezzlement of more than 2 billion rubles.
The capital court sentenced Valeria Fedyakina, a native of Simferopol, better known as Bitmama, to seven years in prison. The defendant, who previously called herself an expert in the field of cryptocurrency, was accused of embezzling 2.2 billion rubles from her clients. According to the verdict, Bitmama must repay this damage.
Moscow’s Presnensky Court announced the verdict of 30-year-old Valeria Fedyakina, accused of especially large-scale fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Instead of the ten years of general regime colony requested by the state prosecutor during the debate, she received seven. In addition, the convict will have to compensate four victims for material damage in the amount of almost 2.2 billion rubles. For its repayment, the court arrested Bitmama’s accounts and assets until the sentence enters into legal force.
At the same time, the court did not apply to Fedyakina a reprieve until her daughter reaches the age of 14.
It should be noted that Bitmama was detained on September 15, 2023, when she was six months pregnant. As a result, the woman gave birth to a child already in the pre-trial detention center. There the girl is now together with her mother and is and, apparently, together with her will go to the colony. From there, when she reaches the age of three, she can be handed over to the guardianship authorities. Bitmama has not admitted her guilt.
As established by the investigation and the court, the cryptoblogger, not being registered as an individual entrepreneur and not having her own legal entity, organized active financial activities under the brands “Bitmama” (Bitmama) and “Bitmama Finance” (Bitmama Finance). The latter she herself called one of the largest crypto-exchange firms.
The companies proved to be in great demand after the beginning of the SWO, when Russian banks were under sanctions and international payment systems became inaccessible to Russian business.
Businessmen who needed money to pay for goods deposited it in exchangers in one country and received it in another. Unlike banks, which charge a transfer fee, Bitmama, who had offices in Moscow City, Novy Arbat and Dubai, personally promised clients not only a refund, but also a 0.4-0.5% payout per day if she could use their funds in her own projects “for at least three days.
The funds received by the woman, who positioned herself as a successful investor, allegedly intended to invest in the oil industry, gold and cryptocurrency.
Investor Gagik Gulakyan, who met her in the spring of 2023 and lost 837 million rubles, was recognized as a victim of the actions of the businesswoman, Yevgeny Roitman, Mikhail Westfried and Yulia Zakharchuk, who lost more than 830 million rubles, 560 million rubles and 5 million rubles respectively. It should be noted that initially Valeria Fedyakina was charged with embezzlement of more than 7 billion rubles, but then this figure was significantly adjusted downward by the investigation.
The Bitmama trial, as Kommersant reported, began in December 2024. The defendant claimed that “she herself is actually a victim of fraudsters”, in particular Mr. Gulakyan. However, this version was not confirmed during the investigation. But the testimony of witnesses and victims was used as the basis of the indictment.
At first, they said, working with Valeria Fedyakina resembled the scheme “in the morning – money, in the evening – chairs” from the novel by Ilf and Petrov, but at some point Bitmama began to delay transfers of funds.
Approximately the same thing happened with the money invested in the defendant’s business: the victims believed Valeria Fedyakina that she had her own oil tanker to make favorable deals and the ability to buy gold profitably, and lost their money.