SBU shut down the “B2B Jewerly” financial pyramid, into which Ukrainians invested over 250 million dollars

The Security Service of Ukraine blocked the activity of a financial pyramid that more than 600 thousand Ukrainians invested in. Photos posted on the SBU’s official website make it clear that this concerns the so‑called jewelry network “B2B Jewerly.”

SBU investigators established that 20 people, involving about a hundred legal entities, organized the financial scheme and during the operation of the pyramid “laundered” more than 250 million dollars. This was done through purchases of luxury real estate and cars, and investments in businesses under their control. Also, according to the SBU, the organizers bought one of the islands in the Dnipro cascade with real estate located on it.

Law enforcement officers conducted 48 searches in the Kyiv and Vinnytsia regions and in Odesa.

Recall that in the spring Bihus.Info published an investigation into “B2B Jewelry.” Its essence was masking itself as a network of jewelry stores that sold so‑called certificates. Everyone who bought a certificate was promised up to 416% annual returns. At that time, journalists managed to document how armed guards carried cash out of the stores in bags and loaded it into Land Cruiser SUVs 200, which drove it off in an unknown direction.

The organizer of the scheme was named as Mykola Honta from the city of Ladyzhyn in Vinnytsia region, who was the media face of the “B2B Jewelry” pyramid. The fraudsters massively bought billboards and TV ads calling on people to buy “certificates” and jewelry of dubious quality. Overall, stores managed to open in several regions of Ukraine, in Kazakhstan, and even in Russia.