Russian investigators add criminal organisation charge to Valeria Fedyakina and Gagik Gulakyan case

Russia’s Main Investigative Directorate in Moscow has added a criminal organisation charge to the case against crypto blogger Valeria Fedyakina, known as Bitmama, and Moscow investor Gagik Gulakyan. For PSPs and high-risk operators, the useful detail is not the tabloid label but the mechanism: the case centres on unlicensed money movement, cash handling, FX exchange and transfers without bank accounts, including electronic money.

1. According to the source, Moscow’s Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia (GSU SKR) expanded the charges against Fedyakina and Gulakyan to include organising a criminal organisation under Article 210, Part 1 of the Russian Criminal Code. The case was opened on 29 September, and the new charge carries a sentence of 12 to 20 years.
2. A third figure, Gulakyan’s partner Vagram Stepanyan, has been declared wanted. He is suspected of participation in a criminal organisation under Article 210, Part 2, which carries 7 to 10 years in prison.
3. The Moscow Zamоскvoretsky District Court heard the prosecution’s request on 1 October to extend the defendants’ detention until 7 January 2027. The investigator said they would soon be formally presented with the new charge, which is how the case surfaced publicly.
4. Fedyakina was first detained in September 2023, while six months pregnant. She later gave birth to a daughter in pre-trial detention. Earlier accusations against her concerned the theft of 6.7 bn rubles in so-called money transfers, a service that grew in demand after anti-Russian sanctions.
5. The source says that service worked like this: business clients handed over money in one country and received it in another, typically for payments for goods. Later, two more entrepreneurs were recognised as victims, and the alleged damage was reduced to 2.2 bn rubles. Fedyakina, Gulakyan and Stepanyan deny wrongdoing.

For high-risk payment businesses, the case is a reminder of how quickly “money transfer” arrangements can be recast by investigators as illegal banking, especially when they involve cash-in/cash-out, FX conversion, cross-border settlement and informal coordination between several participants. That is exactly the sort of fact pattern banks and PSPs run from when they see it in onboarding or monitoring.