Large sums of money hidden in gift packages, the promise of fantastic returns, laws invented to take advantage of people’s gullibility, a police covert operation worthy of a movie: this is the plot of the trial of a con man recently convicted of running a revised pyramid scam.
• Also read: Police spoil alleged scammer’s ‘party’
In order to trick victims into believing they were part of a community committed to sharing and solidarity, Lioudmila Minina propagated the concept of “evolving triangles”. Being held by double agents who played the game and infiltrated her universe, the impostor now risks jail time.
“There’s nothing here, it’s my husband’s birthday.”
This is what Lioudmila Minina answers the police, who on February 29, 2020 ruined her party at her house on Avenue Payan in Saint-Hyacinthe.
Gift bags filled with money stood on a piano. These gifts were not intended for her spouse. It was her party. But we didn’t celebrate that she turned a year older.
The room where the guests were talking when the police arrived at the defendant’s home. The gifts she was to receive are enthroned on the piano. Courtesy of court
A party was organized in honor of the person many dubbed Mila for achieving what every member of her community wanted to achieve: successfully completing a triangle, a result that would net her $40,000.
Each triangle includes 15 people. The base consists of eight new members who each donate $5,000. It’s the person at the top of the triangle who pockets the kitten on the occasion of a party organized for them. Then the triangle dissolves and two new ones emerge.
All other members move up one line. In order to collect $40,000 in turn, the eight occupying the baseline must each recruit two new people to climb the ladder and develop their triangle. (see diagram)
Explanation of a triangle. When all the base members are recruited and are willing to pay $5,000 each, the person in the party position will receive $40,000. Trial of Lioudmina Minina for fraud. The 59-year-old woman was found guilty. Courtesy of court
When the person at the top of the triangle pocketed their $40,000, the triangle unraveled and two new triangles formed. The other members thus move up one line. Courtesy of court. Courtesy of court
Mila, on the other hand, speaks more of evolutionary triangles, with the aim of “paying forward”. To convince people to join the community, i.e. invest, Mila chooses her words well and falsely suggests that this is not a scam. When the money is handed over to the “birthday person,” the $5,000 is hidden in gift packages under the pretense that it is legal to offer gifts – a facade to disguise a Ponzi scheme.
Caught by double agents
“It’s not like this [on reçoit ou non des cadeaux], but when.” Mila suggests that everyone has an equal chance to reach the top of the triangle and collect $40,000. But it is mathematically impossible, Crown Prosecutors Mes Cimon Sénécal and Simon Lacoste argued in the trial.
The Sûreté du Québec launched an investigation into Mila after receiving reports from across the province. The woman didn’t know it at the time, but if the police were able to harass her group in this way, it was because she had been caught by one of their guests, who was actually… an undercover cop.
“[Quand les policiers sont arrivés]”No one really panicked, I pretended to be surprised,” the double agent explained during the fraud trial of the 59-year-old defendant, which recently ended at the Saint-Hyacinthe courthouse.
Search of Lioudmila Minina on February 29, 2020, the evening of her birthday, when she was supposed to receive gifts of money from other members. PHOTO: MARTIN ALARIE / JOURNAL DE MONTREAL / AGENCY QMI MARTIN ALARIE / JOURNAL DE MONTREAL /
Another police officer working incognito even managed to integrate one of the triangles. She played the role of a woman with financial problems. From their first exchange, Mila tells him about community, about a journey to abundance. With this, the double agent accesses a previously closed universe: chat groups between members, virtual meetings, the functioning of the community, advice on recruitment. She takes the opportunity to take screenshots and collect evidence.
Non-existent laws
From the start, Mila addresses the legality of the system: donations given voluntarily, regardless of their number and amount, are not taxable, everything is regulated by the laws on good fortune and donations, she repeats.
Small problem: These laws do not exist.
Then doubts arose among some members. Articles about community-like fundraising circles are shared in their chat groups. To fool the skeptics, Mila claims that lawyers and the police approved everything.
But while she insists on legality, she takes great precautions to keep the community’s activities secret. The few existing paper documents should be composted, she demands. Members communicate through an application with encrypted messages. Everyone’s identity is hidden behind a nickname, a funny name.
“I remember in the 1980s my parents were talking about the pyramids, about my aunt who lost money.”
Nicolas expressed reservations before investing in the Evolution Triangle. But he believed Mila and saw in it an opportunity to pay off his debts, “upgrade” his future marriage, and pay for dental care. Since she couldn’t raise the required $5,000, she even advanced him some money.
“I work hard so that you get celebrated twice before your wedding,” Mila would have promised him.
Cash gift confiscated by police during search. Courtesy of court
Cash gift confiscated by police during search. Courtesy of court
He will never have scooped a single $40,000 prize pool. To enjoy the abundance, new members must join the triangles.
An unsustainable system
However, Nicolas’ two guests backed out before they even presented their $5,000 gift. Both were advised against by their relatives as they were reluctant to the process…
“Among the hundred contacts there is certainly someone who needs us, who wants to achieve something in their life, our community will help them. But above all, work on your vibrations, it will bring the right people into your life,” she told him.
He felt pressure to find other members. Others also had difficulty recruiting new employees and thus reaching the top of the triangle. Unlike Mila, who she often finds in the payment box. She was feted six times in just over a year, and at the time of the search she was able to scoop a nest egg of $40,000 on three other occasions. His net profit from the scam is at least $123,583.
“I found this in the huts [du haut], it often came back to the same people. If it was truly self-help, many people could go through it. That worried me,” said Félix, another victim of the plan. The gift he was supposed to give Mila, filled with his savings, was lying on the piano the night of the search and was eventually confiscated by the police.
If the opportunity presented by Mila seems too good to be true, then it is. The system is indeed unsustainable, a forensic accountant stressed during the trial.
It’s mathematical: the number of members and triangles doubles at each level. Therefore, the ability to attract new members will sooner or later be overwhelming. Very quickly, the total number of members reaches the population of Quebec and even the country. And less than 13% will reach the top of the pyramid and rake in $40,000.
The system is mathematically useless: the number of members and triangles doubles at each level. Therefore, the ability to recruit new members will sooner or later be disproportionate to the population willing to join the community, the trial said. decency
For Nicolas, the financial loss is very small compared to the embarrassment he has endured since.
“I am ashamed to have had the ego to believe that my little human just discovered the secret that would solve all the inequalities in our society, that I was accepted into the inside circle and that it would solve the problem of everyone I love,” he said.
You face imprisonment
At her trial, Mila defended herself, through her attorneys Mes Gabriel Bérubé-Bouchard and Célia Hadid, by saying that she fundamentally believed in the working of the community and that she never wanted to jeopardize anyone’s money.
The jury didn’t believe her, instead accepting the Crown’s theory that she had staged an entire charade to make money off the members’ backs.
The Crown Prosecutors, I Simon Lacoste and I Cimon Sénécal. PIERRE-PAUL POULIN/LE JOURNAL DE MONTRÉAL/QMI AGENCY Pierre-Paul Poulin / Le Journal de Montréal / QMI Agency
In particular, she was found guilty of fraud. The maximum penalty for this offense is 14 years in prison. The statement on the pronouncement of judgment will follow later.
While sorry for being deceived, Nicolas still wonders about Mila’s true intentions.
“I’d like to think that she believed in it as much as I did.”
Lioudmila Minina’s accomplice, Isabelle Turcotte, has since pleaded guilty to being involved in an illegal operation in which, upon delivery of a sum of money, a person is entitled to the subsequent delivery of a greater sum of money than the amount of money originally paid. She received 18 months of probation and community service.
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