vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #153 / Social life / Reading article...

Angry investors in Vladivostok demanded their deposits back from a collapsed pyramid scheme that affected thousands of people throughout the region.

More than 20,000 people — mostly pensioners — invested approximately 15 billion rubles in the Primorye Food Charitable Fund, which paid interest and food vouchers on deposits. The investment fund collapsed Oct. 22.

The scheme showed signs of collapse as early as September, when Director Yury Chernozatonsky announced a halt in dividend payments. In the middle of October, the fund cut off food vouchers, closed its office, and stopped answering phone calls.

The fund was backed by the krai administration, as well as numerous local businesses, including banks, fishing companies, and airlines. Krai governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko received loans from Moscow banks this September to support the ailing fund.

Nazdratenko’s efforts couldn’t halt a steady decline, though, and depositors finally lost patience with promises that money was on the way any day now.

“Give us our money, you crooks! I have nothing to live on now!” one man shouted at Valery Katsman, a commercial service representative

Katsman replied, “Shut up, old man, or you’ll be carried away in a coffin.”

Such threats didn’t stop pensioners from lingering in the office throughout the day.

“Between my daughter, son-in-law and me, we had 500 dollars,” said one pensioner, Lyudmila Kazakova.

“Now our food vouchers don’t work and we haven’t received a single kopeck.”