S-Group: Unveiling the pyramid scheme deceiving desperate investors

That S-Group is a new giant pyramid scheme, which, after siphoning off as much money as possible from people desperate to get rich, will collapse, has been written and spoken about extensively. And they are still writing and speaking. But it doesn’t seem to affect the "investors," who are actually just ordinary suckers.

Well – a sucker is not a mammoth; he won’t go extinct. If someone wants a lot of easy money, we send these people to S-Group and its divisions, which, despite the company’s British registration, are oddly concentrated in Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan. S-Group primarily operates in these countries and recruits the largest number of its investors from there.

As for those who understand that money doesn’t come out of thin air, reading this material will be useful. So as not to join the ranks of suckers who paid for the lavish lives of the S-Group pyramid founders: Roman Felyk and Vadim Mashurov. For those who wish to delve deeper into how the pyramid works, we recommend this video:

It examines the workings of the pyramid, its nuances, and the sauce under which S-Group attracts investors, whom it calls investors. Pay attention to the footage showing so-called "mentors," that is, people who explain to new investors how to "invest" money and where the profits come from.

The inarticulateness of these people is off the charts. And understanding how money is made for the payouts to investors is impossible. Everything boils down to the formula "you give money, we earn, and then we give you the profit." How the earning process happens, making it possible to turn one hundred dollars into one hundred thousand in the shortest time is impossible to understand. 

Also, pay attention to the images demonstrating those who have "achieved success" publicly. Do you really believe that these young people with an apparent lack of any intellect could have gone from shepherds of goats in a mountain village (and this is not a joke) to dollar millionaires?

To confirm their current wealth, they display a set of status items: yachts, sports cars, jewelry, and branded clothes, which they now supposedly own. In a single case, this could be believable, but in all the promotional videos telling stories of success by yesterday’s makeup artists and taxi drivers, this set is suspiciously the same. However, it is targeted at makeup artists and taxi drivers, so the masterminds behind the S-Group pyramid have made a sensible and successful plan.

But the advertisement doesn’t stop with just targeting the youth. Even Mavrodi milked not only young families of students but also "lonely women like Maryna, who trust no one." And part of the S-Group’s promotion is aimed at pensioners. Quite successfully, I might add – an entire series of "webinars" and videos specifically target them.

So – let’s try to understand the main theses promoted by S-Group at their seminars in upscale Dubai hotels and get across to the people they wish to lure into their network.

S-Group promises guaranteed profits. Each participant in the "investment fund" receives 13% of the income from each new recruit to S-Group. To calculate future capital, S-Group has even developed a profitability table with levels from 1 to 11. Investors move to the first level with a 5% yield upon contributing a minimum of $100. To achieve level 11, several conditions must be met: a total investment of $250,000 and achieving a team turnover of $25 million. 

 

What else does S-Group promise its clients besides payouts for each new recruit? The company offers its investors to choose one of the investment activities in which they want to invest their money: the Forex market, companies at the IPO stage, pharmaceuticals (specifically medical cannabis), and charity.

But the catch is that these capitals are managed not by people, but by a "specially developed trading algorithmic robot" that is "insured against errors." This robot was "specifically developed for such operations by the company’s specialists and tested on various exchanges for more than 30,000 hours."

This "genius technology" is supposedly leased by S-Group from a company called DDS. Vadym Mashurov, one of the co-founders of S-Group, claims that DDS is a reputable company that can be googled in just two minutes. On the official company website, alongside famous foreign legal entities, is S-Group under the brand name Sincere Systems Group: 

However, clicking on the information about DDS in the Bloomberg companies directory reveals a completely different company. There we find information about a Japanese organization providing information security systems development services.

 

The company is called DDS and stands for Digital Development Systems. But Vadym Mashurov offered another interpretation in his presentation — Deployable Data Solutions.

That’s that. Next comes the "British registration." The official registered address of Sincere Systems (the name under which S-Group is registered) is in the UK: 71-75 Shelton Street, London, Greater London, United Kingdom, WC2H 9JQ. There is no office there, and according to rating-market, it is simply a service that sells registration to its address for just 39 pounds. The address in the investment fund’s registry shows 18,899 companies registered.

The company director is a Ukrainian citizen, Maryana Roytburd. Maryana Roytburd is either the owner, beneficiary, director, or former director of a total of 346 different companies. 

 

Moving forward. The authorized capital of S-Group is 1 pound sterling. True, S-Group itself claims that its authorized capital is 5 million pounds sterling, but the documents speak for themselves:

If we examine the history of S-Group, it will turn out to be just a rebranding of the previous financial pyramid — Sincere Systems. Both companies – S-Group and Sincere Systems – are on the lists of questionable financial projects by the Russian Central Bank and operate as a financial pyramid scheme. 

 

Another fact confirming that S-Group is just a typical pyramid scheme is the presence of its cryptocurrency. This token is called SWP. However, this "cryptocurrency" is not traded on any of the more-or-less known exchanges. We will discuss this "cryptocurrency" at the end of the article.

And now let’s touch on the most critical aspect – the personalities behind the S-Group pyramid. They are Roman Felyk and Vadym Mashurov. Although their names are not mentioned in the founding documents, they position themselves as the creators of the project. Which makes sense – no one wants to go to jail, especially since they have unfortunate precedents in this regard.

Their most famous project is the Helix pyramid, which collapsed in 2016. It was founded in Ukraine, not in Kyiv, but in the provincial Ternopil. 

 

Both Mashurov and Felik have been on the wanted list and had significant issues with the criminal world, as they swindled someone influential. Rumor has it, these issues remain unresolved, which is why Messrs. Mashurov and Felik don’t appear in their homeland. 

 

However, they managed to "resolve" the matter with the Ukrainian police, but that hardly made it easier for the Helix pyramid’s investors. Incidentally, the pyramid operated under the British-registered name of HELIX Capital. From this entity, Felik collected money from trusting Ukrainians, allegedly to invest in the "rapidly growing" cryptocurrency "Swisscoin." Does that ring any bells?

But Helix, if you can call it that, was just a "training exercise" – Ukrainians are generally not wealthy, and they managed to collect just a few million dollars. But it provided experience and an understanding of how it works.

The new pyramid by Felyk and Mashurov is much larger in scale. Although primarily aimed at residents of the post-Soviet space: the "investment fund" is most active in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. In Russia, as already mentioned, the predecessor of S-Group – Sincere Systems – ended up on the Central Bank’s blacklist. The same happened in Kazakhstan: 

 

Yet the pyramid continues to operate. Judging by the reports it shows its "investors," it now has almost a billion dollars in its accounts:

 

Compare these numbers with the payouts to the so-called "team mentors." What are such earnings based on? Not on medical cannabis or a "trading robot"? No cannabis or trading robot producers (they do exist) have confirmed cooperation with S-Group. If someone wants to buy cannabis on the Voos company’s website, which supposedly collaborates with S-Group, it’s impossible: except for an image, nothing works.

So, where does the money for these "bonuses" come from? It’s all very simple: it’s the same classic pyramid scheme built on a network principle. Each "mentor" has a "team" whose members are called "investors." These "investors" either directly pool their money for their "mentor," who then "invests" the money somewhere, or "invest" the money under his close guidance into S-Group’s "high-yield projects." They then get "dividends" from there. And the "mentor" also receives a percentage for each new recruit.

Moreover, the "investors" deposit their money into a cryptocurrency wallet. So, demanding a return is problematic – from whom can you demand it?

Everything works until the pyramid reaches its critical point. And it’s clear that it will reach that point soon, as the organizers already understand. Therefore, they try to discreetly "exit" the potential loud failure by offering their investors to buy "real estate in Dubai" as yet another "high-yield investment project." Promising guaranteed profit here too. We recommend another video on this topic:

Besides the fact that no realtor or developer can guarantee profits on real estate investments – who knows what the market will be like tomorrow and whether the project will even be completed? – there is one more nuance. The buyer of the real estate in the S-Group pyramid doesn’t receive any legal documents confirming the purchase. The "document" confirming ownership of the under-construction property in Dubai is an NFT token from the same S-Group. How this can later be converted into real estate is understood only by the "investors."

In general, we recommend watching the above videos. This is for those who have at least a bit of critical thinking. And for those who want a lot of money for free, we recommend investing in S-Group immediately. It is advisable to take out the largest possible loan. Otherwise, you will not only be left without money, but also end up on the street.

As for the future of S-Group, you can be sure at least taking into account its so-called cryptocurrency. Because if the law enforcement agencies of the former Soviet Union, where S-Group is most active, do not deal with the company’s activities, the US Securities and Exchange Commission will sooner or later get to it, recognising the SWP token from S-Group as a security with all the ensuing consequences. An example is Anatoliy Lehkodymov’s Bitzlato, which was accused by the US Department of Justice of laundering $700 million. As a result of the regulator’s decision, the company was declared fraudulent, and its founder was caught and arrested.

The same thing will happen to the founders of S-Group, but will its "investors" be much comforted by the fact that Felyk and Mashurov will tell the same tales that Mavrodi once told - that, if it weren’t for the state, everyone would be happy millionaires?

James Smith