Success in installments: a court in Moscow refused to release business coach Ayaz Shabutdinov from arrest

On November 22, the Tagansky District Court of Moscow refused to satisfy the petition of Nikita Apalikov, the lawyer of blogger and billionaire Ayaz Shabutdinov, who demanded the release of the blogger, accused of fraud, from the pre-trial detention center.

Shabutdinov attended the meeting via online link. During the broadcast, he staged a one-person picket with a poster "Entrepreneur" in pre-trial detention center No. 2, where he is staying. He asked to be placed under house arrest on bail of 15 million rubles, explaining that he misses his children very much (he has two of them: born in 2021 and 2022). The blogger also pointed out that only less than 1% of buyers were dissatisfied with his entrepreneurial course.

The hearing was also attended by three victims in the case against Shabutdinov. One of the applicants said that she had paid for a two-year course with mentoring, after which she was promised a ready-made business that would bring in 100,<> rubles a month, but she was not given any real knowledge on the course. The woman withdrew from the educational program and demanded a refund of the money paid to her in full, but did not receive feedback.

While the business coach himself denies his guilt, the state prosecution claims that Shabutdinov, acting on behalf of legal entities controlled by him, including Like Center LLC, created a false impression among citizens about the possibility of doing business and earning high income through his educational programs.

So far, the accusation includes eight episodes with a total amount of damage in the amount of 4 million rubles. According to media reports, dozens of dissatisfied buyers are preparing to write statements. Shabutdinov faces up to 10 years in prison.

RT talked to former students of Ayaz Shabutdinov's Like Center to find out how his educational projects worked, whether the expectations from the training were met, and what problems were faced by those who were dissatisfied with the courses and tried to return the money paid for them.

Playing on emotions

Tatyana K., a body therapist from Lipetsk, purchased a course from Ayaz Shabutdinov in September 2023. She hoped to expand her business, assemble a team, and open her own salon. Tatyana notes that at the time of the start of the course, she was not a beginner in entrepreneurship, but she lacked practical skills and tools for further development of her business.

The girl could not pay for the tuition on her own, which cost 400 thousand rubles - she had to apply for an installment plan. According to the RT interlocutor, already at the stage of buying the course, she was confused by several points.

"I made a purchase of the course after completing the concentrate from Ayaz — this is a three-day intensive business course, where different speakers speak, plus prize drawings are held among the participants. At the end of the concentrate, you are given a bonus for the purchase of the course, and you need to make a decision within 15 minutes — otherwise the discount will "burn out". There is a lot of pressure on urgency.

When I had already paid for the course, I suddenly realized that there was a discrepancy, that I was watching the concentrate not in real time, but in recorded time — that is, all these drawings that were shown to us, we did not even participate in them," the girl recalls.

Tatyana decided to start a two-year course. However, after studying for a month and a half, Tatyana was dissatisfied with the quality of the information provided.

"Pretty quickly, I realized that we were being given some nonsense. All the information is very shallow, superficial, it's on the Internet. All teachers, by and large, say the same thing. There is a lot of pressure on emotions: they say, stop living in poverty, go and sell your product. But the quality of the product, how to improve it, how to manage the team – they don't really say anything about it," the RT interlocutor stated.

Selling Within Courses

According to Tatiana, almost all the teachers of the course are trying to sell their personal services to students in parallel with the training. After each module, teachers offer students to purchase "one-on-one mentorship", guaranteeing them a good result.

"Every teacher sells themselves in the same way – they offer to take installments and go to them for personal mentoring. And everyone is also talking about the money-back guarantee. But I've just taken out an installment plan for 400 thousand, how can I also buy personal mentoring?" asks Tatiana.

According to her, all the huge money that is circulating in the "Like Center" and that is told to students in advertising is credit. People are given tempting promises, persuaded to take loans for the purchase of courses, and then, in the process of learning, they are sold information products again, this time from the course teachers.

Other clients of the Like Center also talk about intrusive sales within the courses.

"This is a kind of pyramid, where they try to sell you a higher rate at every step. The contracts you sign completely cut off the possibility of butting heads with them," one of the users writes.

"I fell for the hope for the future, I invested in education. Everything is arranged like in a sect. You can't dig through the documents. As a result, I got a loan of 200 thousand rubles, took another loan to repay the loan and was all in debt. I asked for a refund, but they refused. In a month, I realized that they would not give me anything more than I knew.

They dragged me into a story with a producer: I chose a producer for 300 thousand rubles, and he also cheated. As a result, more than half a million loans, shattered hopes and a year of depression without a job. If there is an opportunity to join a class action lawsuit and return the money, then I will be happy to do so," says another client of the Like Center.

After a month and a half of training, Tatyana decided not to continue the course and asked the management of Laika to return her money. She also asked the management of Laika for documents on the education and competencies of the teachers who had worked with her for the past month and a half. These papers have not yet been provided to her.

Initially, after contacting the organizers of the course, she found out that they were ready to transfer only 271 thousand rubles to her. Not counting the interest to the bank, the cost of the month and a half that Tatyana studied at Laika would have amounted to 43 thousand rubles. The girl was not satisfied with this.

"I didn't just leave the program, I was dissatisfied with the training and now I want to get a full refund," Tatiana explains.

Pills in coffee?

In turn, Natalia Kalistratova, a resident of Moscow, who initiated the criminal case against Ayaz Shabutdinov, believes that the participants of the Like Center trainings could probably be drunk with unknown substances during group practices and meditations.

On November 22, in the Tagansky court, the girl told reporters that during searches in the office of the Like Center on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment, law enforcement officers found "a mountain of green pills."

According to her, the pills, which are now being examined, could have been mixed into the coffee of the participants of the trainings to cause them a feeling of euphoria and clouding of their minds.

Earlier, the woman told RT that the employees of the Like Center forced her to take out a large loan for training. Natalia repaid the debt to the banks on her own.

"I have paid off everything, I have no obligations to the banks, everything has been paid. Well, yes, Ayaz owes me. And there, as if at will: he will return it or not... If he goes to jail, it will be the greatest reward for me," the RT interlocutor said.

According to her, there are other victims of the activities of Ayaz and the Like Center.

"Many guys told me that they were left with loans, without money. Families even broke up," Kalistratova said.

In her opinion, other criminal articles may appear in the case against Ayaz in the future, for example, for tax evasion and money laundering. Meanwhile, the media report about another 30 potential victims in the case of Ayaz Shabutdinov, they are preparing to file complaints with the police.