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INTEL
PIG BUTCHERING: now the #1 loss category in the US by estimated volume / HUSHPUPPI: the Instagram that became the evidence -- Case 001 open / BEC: one spoofed email, one wire, seven figures -- see the methodology / ROSS ULBRICHT: full pardon January 21 2025 after 11+ years -- Case 013 open / ALL FIGURES LABELED: estimate vs conviction vs market collapse -- see Methodology / UNODC 2023: $5.4B estimated annually from SE Asia pig-butchering compounds [UNVERIFIED] / PIG BUTCHERING: now the #1 loss category in the US by estimated volume / HUSHPUPPI: the Instagram that became the evidence -- Case 001 open / BEC: one spoofed email, one wire, seven figures -- see the methodology / ROSS ULBRICHT: full pardon January 21 2025 after 11+ years -- Case 013 open / ALL FIGURES LABELED: estimate vs conviction vs market collapse -- see Methodology / UNODC 2023: $5.4B estimated annually from SE Asia pig-butchering compounds [UNVERIFIED]
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COMPANY · PLATFORM

Forsage

🇷🇺 no headquarters; founders in Russia, Georgia and Indonesia · FOUNDED 2020-01
THE FIGURE
~$340M
What the indictment says Forsage took from investors worldwide (alleged).
WHAT IT SAID IT WAS

Smart contracts on Ethereum, Tron and Binance Smart Chain marketed as a 'decentralised' matrix marketing programme beyond any regulator's reach.

WHAT IT REALLY WAS

A pyramid and Ponzi scheme in code: each new member's crypto was paid straight up to earlier members; no product, ~$340M taken in and more than 80% of investors lost money (indictment).

THE STORY

Forsage went live on Ethereum in January 2020, promoted by Vladimir 'Lado' Okhotnikov as a decentralised business that no government could stop. Its smart contracts simply forwarded each entrant's payment to the people above them in a matrix, so the last in lost everything; regulators in the Philippines and Montana ordered it to stop in 2020 and 2021 and it moved to Tron and Binance Smart Chain. The SEC charged the four founders and seven promoters in August 2022 and an Oregon grand jury indicted the founders in February 2023. The contracts still run; the founders remain abroad, and one co-founder was extradited to face trial in 2026.

WHO RAN IT
Forsage (Vladimir Okhotnikov) ▸
the scheme and its founder 'Lado' · open the case file
Mikhail Sergeev
co-founder — indicted February 2023; at large
Sergey Maslakov
co-founder — indicted February 2023; at large
Olena Oblamska ('Lola Ferrari')
co-founder — extradited from Thailand; pleaded not guilty in Portland, May 2026
WHO WAS HURT
millions of retail participants, heavily in the Philippines, Nigeria, India and the US
HOW IT ENDED
Founded
2020-01
Based
no headquarters; founders in Russia, Georgia and Indonesia
How
still operating — contracts still exist on-chain; SEC and DOJ charges against founders and promoters; founders at large

SEC charged 11 people (1 August 2022); US promoters settled and paid penalties. Oregon indictment of Okhotnikov, Sergeev, Maslakov and Olena Oblamska for wire-fraud conspiracy (unsealed 22 February 2023); Oblamska extradited from Thailand and pleaded not guilty May 2026. Philippine SEC and Montana regulators issued cease-and-desist orders (2020–21).

SOURCES
sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022-134justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/forsage-founders-indicted-340m-defi-crypto
Facts as published in court records, regulator releases and the sources above. Anyone charged and not convicted is alleged only.
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