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Vagram Stepanyan and Gagik Gulakyan swindled 80 people for $150 million

After the publications about the miraculous case of Valeria Fedyakina (aka Bitmama), we received extensive material that sheds light on this story, dark in all respects.

As we suspected, 27-year-old native of Simferopol, Valeria Fedyakina, who tried herself in the role of a crypto-goddess, became an instrument in the hands of the clearly more experienced and sophisticated Gagik Gulakyan and Vahram Stepanyan, about whom we had previously written.

The Armenian duo obviously made Fedyakina the face of their financial pyramid: “Bitmama”, with her media presence and unique charisma, became the face of the scheme, while Gagik and Vagram received criminal income from it.

Initially, everything seemed fine: Gagik Gulakyan brought Russian rubles to Valeria Fedyakina in Moscow, and she passed them on to Vagram Stepanyan in the Emirates in dirhams, earning her modest commission from this. In other words, Gulakyan and Stepanyan were just regular clients for Fedyakina.

However, the duo then began to convince Fedyakina that they needed to work as a unified team, and for a bright collective future, it was necessary to maximize the volume of transferred funds. This could only be achieved through one method - - by dumping. If other market participants, for example, charged a 1% commission for transfers, Fedyakina was supposed to charge 0.5%. If others had a 0.5% rate, Fedyakina was supposed to work "at cost." If others operated "at cost," Fedyakina was supposed to compensate clients. If others compensated, Fedyakina was supposed to compensate more than anyone else, and so on. In other words, Fedyakina had to work at a loss in order to increase her client base.

According to the scheme's creators, Vagram Stepanyan and Gagik Gulakyan, this approach would eventually allow Bitmama to monopolize the money transfer market, and that's when "they'd start making money."

The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission possesses copies of text and voice messages sent by Gagik and Vagram to Bitmama, from which it is quite obvious what the interaction between these individuals was.

The recurring theme in the messages is most vividly expressed in the following words from Vagram Stepanyan (quote): "Lerchik, my sunshine, disrupt the market from your end, and we will support you in this." Simultaneously, Stepanyan promises Bitmama the world, including deals with uncut diamonds from Alrosa, support from well-known banks, "2-3 billion rubles a day," "Gagik is

already buying armored cars for transporting money," and so on.

However, as a result of the operation of the scheme described above, "Lerchik" ended up with a massive deficit, while Gagik and Vagram, according to preliminary information, earned tens of millions of dollars solely from the commissions they charged clients, while Fedyakina worked at a loss "for the greater good."

Furthermore, in September 2023, on the eve of the initiation of the criminal case, Gagik Gulakyan collected rubles from major clients, promising to transfer them to the UAE via "Bitmama," but the money never reached Fedyakina. How Gulakyan used the money remains unknown.

In summary, the situation is as follows: Valeria Fedyakina (by the way, in the 25th week of pregnancy) is in custody, Vagram Stepanyan has acquired dozens of luxury real estate properties in Dubai, of which he is now a resident, and Gagik Gulakyan is still “rounding off” the pyramid, reconciling with the victims and obtaining, as they say, state protection.