As we mentioned earlier, Arsen Akopyan and Alexey Korneev are not only business partners in HighRisk, scammers, betting platformand landing money from banned online casinos and betting platforms in the Russian Federation, but they are also close friends.
What does the arrest of Arharova and Bayazitova have to do with this, and why did the latter “leave” for 5 years in a prison, and how is this related to the activities of banned casinos?
All the most interesting details below, stay tuned!
The Last Supper of the organizers of criminal schemes for P2P transfers worth tens of billions of rubles in favor of online casinos
At the end of last year, a story circulated on the internet about how pseudo-journalists Alexander Bayazitova and Olga Arharova were sentenced to 5 years in a prison for extorting money from the Vice-President of Promsvyazbank, Mr. Ushakov Alexander, in exchange for deleting publications about him from anonymous Telegram channels “Meat Grinder” (now “Truth Grinder”), “E-Magic”, “Infernal Money”, “Financial Watchman”, and “Media Killer”, all of which were owned and administered by Bayazitova and Arharova.
It should be noted that from mid-2021 to mid-2022, “ordered” publications began to systematically appear in all Telegram channels controlled by Olga Arharova and Alexandra Bayazitova, tarnishing the reputation of Vice-President of Promsvyazbank Ushakov Alexander.
The result was that the Telegram duo were sentenced to 5 years in a colony for extortion.
Forbes - Journalist Bayazitova sentenced to 5 years in a colony for extortion case
Recently, fresh news emerged on Forbes, RBC, and Kommersant.
Forbes - The victim asked the Moscow City Court to mitigate the sentence for journalist Bayazitova
RBC - Ushakov asked the court to mitigate the sentence for journalists Bayazitova and Arharova
Why did such a massive information attack against PSB’s top manager Ushakov Alexander begin in 2021?
The reason is that this attack was actually linked to well-known figures in the HighRisk and illegal online payment sector for banned children’s online casinos, and illegal betting platforms, namely Korneev Alexey Vladimirovich and Akopyan Arsen Borisovich, as well as a businessman named Markaryan Aram Robertovich.
A brief background on the relationship between Akopyan and Markaryan:
The acquaintance of Armenian Markaryan Aram Robertovich with fellow Armenian Akopyan Arsen Borisovich began when Mr. Akopyan had to deal with “colleagues in the HighRisk sector” in 2018 due to non-compliance with agreements. He decided to seek a “roof” in the FSB.
People from the HighRisk world claim that he was introduced to Aram Markaryan by Arsen’s own brother, Akopyan Artem Borisovich (Artem Puchkov), who at one time was an informant for the FSB’s Department for Economic Security.
Markaryan had access to certain offices in the FSB of the Russian Federation, and one of them provided a “roof” for Akopyan for a good reward. Since then, certain relations developed between Akopyan and Markaryan; Akopyan and Korneev paid Markaryan for the protection and sponsored various business activities for him and his wife, Ovakimyan Marianna.
Companies owned by Markaryan Aram Robertovich
Aram Robertovich, in turn, solved problems for Akopyan Arsen and his friend and partner Korneev, directing the FSB against their competitors in the HighRisk sector, resolving issues with uncooperative security chiefs of banks so that they would give the “green light” within acquiring banks for processing Akopyan and Korneev’s HighRisk payments, allowing them to park their multi-billion turnover. Many know Akopyan Arsen simply as “Arsen from Aram.”
In 2020-2021, the Central Bank took serious action against all illegal online casinos and betting platforms, which led to rapid license revocations from trash banks, including the “Fintech” bank of Murad Salikhov, where Korneev and Akopyan were located, as well as licenses revoked from the non-bank credit organizations they acquired for conducting illegal transactions, or those organizations voluntarily surrendered their licenses - NKO EPS, NARAT, ELIXIR.
After a series of such failures, Akopyan and Korneev urgently needed to find a large acquiring bank to land all their HighRisk and turnover from online casinos and betting platforms; this was critically difficult as the Central Bank of Russia revoked licenses immediately upon seeing such payments. Therefore, they needed an acquiring bank with huge turnover to blend in these illegal payments so that the Central Bank simply wouldn’t notice.
They managed to get into one of the largest banks in the country, “Promsvyazbank” (PSB). The entry was facilitated at the top management level of the bank by our familiar Aram Markaryan, who had close ties with them regarding the withdrawal of the bank’s assets abroad.
As soon as this organized crime group began launching HighRisk operations, everything stopped at Vice-President Ushakov Alexander, who blocked such activities within PSB, understanding the imminent blow to the bank’s reputation and that it was outright fraud.
That’s when Akopyan, Korneev, and Markaryan decided to destroy Ushakov’s reputation using the Telegram channels of Akopyan’s wife Artem (Arsen Akopyan’s biological brother).
To do this, they engaged the anonymously sponsored Telegram channels of Arharova (Akopyan) Olga, the wife of Arsen’s brother Artem Akopyan, and her colleague Bayazitova Alexandra. The plan was to kill “two birds with one shot” - to land HighRisk operations into PSB for internet acquiring and to cover Markaryan’s dark schemes for asset withdrawal from PSB.
Akopyan and Korneev used these Telegram channels of Arharova and Bayazitova for various reputational attacks on their HighRisk competitors, people they disliked, and for advertising their businesses for several years, including the Burlakov brothers who used these blatantly “yellow” Telegram channels for their purposes.
That is why Akopyan and Korneev financed Arharova, Bayazitova, and Churilova for the attack on Alexander Ushakov.
From 2021 to 2022, more than 30 “ordered” and false publications appeared, tarnishing the reputation of Mr. Ushakov, to influence the launch of HighRisk operations in PSB.
Here are just some of the publications we managed to find regarding Alexander Ushakov:
Publications in the Telegram channel “Infernal Money”
- https://t.me/infernal_money/3419
- https://t.me/infernal_money/3664
- https://t.me/infernal_money/3711
- https://t.me/infernal_money/4468
- https://t.me/infernal_money/3763
- https://t.me/infernal_money/3769
- https://t.me/infernal_money/3785
- https://t.me/infernal_money/3933
- https://t.me/infernal_money/3957
- https://t.me/infernal_money/4243
- https://t.me/infernal_money/4253
- https://t.me/infernal_money/4468
- https://t.me/infernal_money/4504
Publications in the Telegram channel “Financial Watchman”
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/37776 (repost, original post deleted from the channel “Media Killer”)
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/38289
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/39965
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/39980
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/40280
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/40294
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/40344
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/40434
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/40626 (repost - original post deleted from “Meat Grinder/Truth Grinder”)
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/41406
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/41516
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/42780
- https://t.me/karaulny_accountant/43649
The remaining publications posted in other Telegram channels have been deleted.
Of course, Bayazitova and Arharova were not averse to earning money not only from Korneev Alexey and Akopyan Arsen but also from those against whom they published all the “ordered” publications.
The rates were simple: deleting a publication with a monthly block - 200,000 - 400,000 rubles at that time, while the cost of a publication was 25,000 rubles, and a repost was 20,000 rubles. A great business, considering that they could write outright lies and no one would do anything to them. But in the situation with Ushakov, they miscalculated.
Ushakov decided to act according to the law and caught these pseudo-journalists in a bribe for deleting publications, the so-called “block on negativity,” and as a result, they ended up behind bars legally.
The essence of the criminal case against Arharova and Bayazitova, accused of extortion
Of course, Ushakov should not have met with these pseudo-journalists, but in reality, Arharova and Bayazitova are one of the tools of influence, so that their sponsors two fraudsters and HighRisk associates Akopyan and Korneev could continue their fraudulent schemes for supplying online casinos and “black betting platforms” with billion-dollar turnovers, and let’s remember that they also service payments for child pornography and children’s online casinos, which should be punished accordingly.
People like them, as well as their sponsors in the person of Korneev and Akopyan, should stay behind bars for a long time, rather than roam free.
After the fiasco with PSB, Akopyan and Korneev transferred all their turnover from processing payments for illegal children’s online casinos, forex, and other banned traffic to MTS Bank, which gave them limits for acquiring their HighRisk payments of 5 billion rubles per month for each. They are still involved in the internet acquiring of MTS Bank and Gazprombank in combination with P2P transfers, as we mentioned earlier.
Interestingly, after Arharova and Bayazitova were convicted, a series of criminal cases grew against Markaryan Aram Robertovich related to the embezzlement of 1 billion euros from Promsvyazbank, and he himself is accused under Article 160, Part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and has been placed on an international wanted list and fled the country.
Markaryan Aram - participant in the embezzlement of 1 billion euros from Promsvyazbank
Soon, in 2024, another criminal case was opened against the same Markaryan Aram Robertovich, but related to embezzlement at BTF Bank. It would not be surprising if Korneev Alexey and Akopyan Arsen were also involved in the embezzlement of 1 billion euros from Promsvyazbank.
It is only unclear why the main fraudsters and organizers of the most grandiose schemes for supplying online casinos with money and robbing ordinary citizens, including children - frausters Korneev Alexey Vladimirovich and Akopyan Arsen Borisovich are still at large.
