Their Zaretskaya: Deputy-Yabatka Oleg Novitsky cheated Belarusian investors out of 20 million. Scheme details

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Remember Tatiana Zaretskaya, who scandalously resigned from Tsikhanouskaya's Cabinet? She is suspected of fraud in Estonia.

Our new hero combines all archetypes at once: he is convicted, joined the "patriots" on a wave, and is also not without talent for running cutting-edge businesses.

Павялічыць

Oleg Novitsky is a deputy of the Minsk Regional Council. A father of many children, a hero of propaganda programs. Beneficiary of dozens of companies with dubious business models or negative results. Currently – suspected under Part 4 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (fraud on an especially large scale).

Novitsky's case is not unique, but simply indicative once again: an eccentric with a criminal past, using only the method of publicly praising Lukashenka, managed to create such a biography and such a degree of self-confidence from scratch and in a short time, that some brought him millions, while others considered him their own and appointed him as a deputy.

From vocational school to top managers

According to his official biography, Oleg Olegovich Novitsky was born in Minsk in 1979, graduated from the Minsk Energy College with a specialty in "Industrial and Civil Engineering." After that, he worked as a foreman in the repair and construction department "Minskremstroi."

In 2000, according to him, he started entrepreneurship. He graduated from the Institute of Entrepreneurial Activity, studied marketing, and "has experience doing business in 18 countries": in Iran, Mexico, India, and so on.

The second part of the thesis cannot be confirmed, but Novitsky did indeed have an individual entrepreneurship (IE) from 1998 to 2008.

Павялічыць

In the 2010s, together with his numerous brothers and other relatives, Oleg Novitsky tried to trade in finishing tiles and opened many companies. In current interviews, he often refers to those times, calling himself "the largest importer of tiles in Belarus." But this is hypocrisy. AlfaKeramika-Bel LLC, opened in 2014, accumulated debts, went bankrupt less than three years later, and was liquidated by court. Kafel Bai LLC was sold to another person from Brest a year after its opening; the Novitskys no longer had any connection to it. Syndicate of Ceramics LLC, opened in 2015, closed in 2018; its Kazakh branch lasted a year less.

Listing all of Novitsky's companies that were opened and subsequently closed by court or reorganization hardly makes sense.

What must be mentioned is some mysterious criminal cases abroad, of which only the outcome is known to us: according to the Belpol database, in 2013, Oleg Novitsky was convicted in Biała Podlaska, Poland, for document forgery, receiving a one-and-a-half-year suspended sentence with a probation period of 3 years.

It can be said in advance that some of his current business partners have convictions under the same article, but in Belarus.

It is also known from databases that, at least once before 2021, Novitsky was issued a travel ban from the country at the initiative of one of the banks — this is done when a person owes money.

In the "pre-revolutionary" years, Novitsky tried his best to get on television, first simply by sitting in the audience of talk shows, then asking questions from the floor, and later speaking from the podium as an expert on tiles, then on construction, then as a motorist with an original opinion on parking problems. Nothing serious. There's not much more to write about him – just a mediocre successful provincial entrepreneur who tried to take off but failed.

Novitsky began to think about truly large-scale projects only after 2020, when in 2022, in a commercial field burned out in all senses, he became a laureate of the national business competition "Man of Business" in the nomination "For the most original business idea implemented by a domestic entrepreneur." In the same competition, but in a different nomination, billionaire Pavel Topuzidis won that year.

What is this award anyway? Many Belarusian businessmen received offers to become its laureate for a modest couple of thousand dollars. Mastodons, of course, are awarded for free, so that the "payers" have good company. And Novitsky's "most original idea" in 2022 was the garbage news aggregator 024.by, which, according to its creator, was supposed to become "an analog of the BBC."

In its first three years of operation, the innovative company "24Media" LLC generated over a million rubles in losses. Today, the website is difficult to open, posts one and a half news items every two days, and a casual user spends 38 seconds on it.

Nevertheless, the Dzyarzhynsk district newspaper quickly fashioned Novitsky into a visionary.

He embraced the role, acquired new regalia, and no longer wanted to appear in the press other than as "successful" or a "patron"; meanwhile, he discharged other brilliant business projects: from the web flea market 24city.by (closed) and the travel opportunities aggregator places.gold (Novitsky vividly described the prospects: "we will buy out Booking!", actual result — closed) to creating business plans for the development of the Minsk region, for which no one provided money (closed).

From the district press, Novitsky moved to the screens of ONT and BT.

"Security, cleanliness, functioning authorities [...] our advantages [...]," he praised the regime's achievements. His public image and emphasized loyalty soon propelled Novitsky into the regional deputies.

Believing in his star, the man ventured into a new financial business for himself, in which the main asset is trust.

Scam for millions

In May 2022, Swiss Leasing LLC was registered with the Social Protection Fund. Registered in 2019, it existed on paper for three years without employees. In the second half of the same year 2022, other companies important for our story were registered: Globalfinmarket LLC, Fainex LLC, GFM-Invest LLC.

A few words about each. "Swiss Leasing" – on paper, a leasing company, publicly offered services for sale-and-leaseback of real estate and equipment. Fainex LLC is the operator of the token placement platform Fainex.by. GFM-Invest LLC is the company that owns Fainex LLC, and Globalfinmarket LLC is the company that owns the majority 70% stake in GFM-Invest LLC. All were effectively controlled by Novitsky.

Павялічыць

"Swiss Leasing" presented itself as "part of the international group of companies UAB Lemures" (such a group of companies does not exist, and UAB Lemures is simply a Lithuanian legal entity registered in Oleg Novitsky's name, in our terms – a limited liability company. In 2019 – the year of its last submitted financial statement – UAB Lemures showed net losses from operations and growing debt. The company no longer exists. Swiss Leasing LLC subsequently came to belong to another Novitsky company, already Belarusian – KGS-Gandal LLC).

During its short period of activity, Swiss Leasing LLC did not manage to earn money and controversially went into liquidation in February 2026.

But what it did manage to do was attract tens of millions of other people's money, supposedly to invest them profitably and repay debts with high interest.

How do investments in leasing companies generally work?

The essence of leasing is that if someone needs equipment or real estate for business, but doesn't have the money yet (or vice versa – they have the equipment and real estate, but suddenly need a lot of money), then this person goes to a leasing company and says "buy this for me" or "buy this from me." The leasing company buys it and leases it to the same client long-term. This is a financial business for which accessible funding is important. The largest leasing companies are affiliated with banks. Companies not affiliated with banks also exist. Banks are reluctant and poor at lending to their competitors. Therefore, one solution is to borrow money on the financial market.

And so "Swiss Leasing" convinced the Belarusian market — investors — that they had clients and projects, only needing money. And they borrowed it through token placement.

In a couple of years, the company attracted 36 million Belarusian rubles from others, of which it repaid 16 million, and as of the end of September 2025, it had obligations of 20 million.

The promised interest for creditors increased each time and eventually reached 24% per annum – many times more than the interest on bank deposits or on tokens of other leasing companies.

In essence, it was a pyramid scheme. The entire economy of "Swiss Leasing" relied not on the talent of deputy Novitsky, but on a stream of loans, each of which covered the previous ones.

But before proceeding, it is necessary to explain the context and terminology.

Developing the Scheme

After the adoption of the updated decree on the High-Tech Park in Belarus, it became possible for HTP companies to conduct ICOs and issue tokens with blockchain records.

In our situation, a token is essentially an electronic bond, and blockchain is essentially a public electronic ledger. An ICO (initial coin offering) is essentially the sale of an obligation.

A company (issuer) issues a token (makes an emission) through a licensed platform (HTP resident), where financial market participants buy it. The platform takes its percentage, money goes to the issuer, who then has financial obligations to the token holders for repayment with interest. From the issuer's perspective, this is a loan received with interest; from the market participant's perspective, it is an investment.

The difference from issuing bonds is the speed of the process and less strict assessment of the borrowing company.

The simplicity of ICO is not necessarily bad; many reputable Belarusian companies issue tokens simply to save time (or for other reasons that are not the subject of this publication). Investors are also interested in this due to its simplicity, accessibility (you can invest small amounts), and the absence of taxation on such income for individuals.

In Belarus, Finstore, owned by BelVEB bank, became a pioneer among ICO platforms. Finstore has been operating since 2019 and was a monopolist for a long time. There were cases where issuers could not fulfill obligations, but there were no major scandals.

The first serious misstep, in which the authorities saw not a business risk but precisely the issuer's intent to defraud investors, occurred in early 2023.

"The fastest default: token issuer suspected of fraud for 1 million rubles," Office Life wrote only in 2025, when the General Prosecutor's Office became interested in the case.

It turns out that in 2022, Akrykam company issued tokens through Finstore totaling 1 million rubles and 130 thousand dollars, and in early 2023, it defrauded its investors by not paying interest.

And so, in 2025, the General Prosecutor's Office concluded that the founders of the companies had a criminal intent from the outset never to return the money.

What is "Akrykam"? "It specializes in the production of artificial stone kitchen sinks and premium acrylic bathtubs."

"Akrykam" was registered in 2018 as a subsidiary of Novitsky's Lithuanian legal entity UAB Lemures, and after it ceased operations in 2019, the parent company changed to a Belarusian one, also belonging to Novitsky — "Elfhandalbud". In June 2022, less than a month after the first token emission, "Akrykam" was re-registered to a certain Sergey Pasechnik.

Павялічыць

At the same time, the "Akrykam" trademark still belongs to Oleg Novitsky today. This either indicates the complexity of the scheme (money can be withdrawn from a company that you supposedly don't directly control on paper through payments for using the trademark – this is a known trick), or that the trails were simply poorly covered.

Павялічыць

Anyway, "Akrykam" vacuumed one million rubles from the market and did not return them. Whether the company was "alive" is a question altogether. In 2021, the annual salary fund was 5000 rubles, which means that half a year before entering the financial market, the company only had a director on minimum wage.

Looking ahead, it must be said that the money was returned to Akrykam's investors. But at face value – meaning without interest, just the net amount invested. This happened three years later and was the result of a collective complaint by investors to the investigative authorities.

But then, in 2021-2022, the scheme tested on "Akrykam" was significantly scaled up with "Swiss Leasing".

Advisor at the National Bank

At the time of Akrykam's first fraudulent token issuance, Alexey Stashevsky, a former employee of Belvnesheconombank and an advisor at the National Bank, worked as the commercial director of the Finstore platform.

Павялічыць

In parallel with the issuance of Akrykam tokens under Stashevsky (from spring 2021 to June 2022), about a dozen prospectuses for the issuance of Oleg Novitsky's "Swiss Leasing" tokens were published on Finstore (more in total, but in this context we emphasize the period when Stashevsky could influence decisions, as this will be important later).

The company, whose staff in 2021 – according to registry extracts – also had no employees other than a director without a salary, had already begun to attract hundreds of thousands in foreign currency through Finstore hundreds of thousands in foreign currency: the first emission for 200 thousand dollars, the second for 200 thousand euros, and so on.

Павялічыць

The very first tokens were issued against property that Novitsky effectively owned in Senitsa.

In Senitsa, on Army Street, 7, stands an office building, constructed from literally the cheapest materials on the market. Immodestly named "Victoria Business Center."

Павялічыць

At the time of the first emission, Finstore valued this building at 884 thousand dollars (at 1100 dollars per square meter!). The building belonged to Novitsky through his control over the company "KGS-Handel", but there were nuances.

As of 2021, the company owning this property, as we see in the databases, had debts of 1,390,000 rubles, while the book value of the property itself was 1,232,000 rubles. And the annual profit from it was 26 thousand rubles. To whom and at what interest "KGS-Handel" owed for the construction of "Victoria", we do not know.

It is unknown whether this building was already collateralized to another creditor of "KGS-Handel" company at the time "Swiss Leasing" launched its ICO.

The second emission of "Swiss Leasing" tokens for 1 million dollars took place on July 19, 2021. These were already unsecured (without collateral).

It was stated in the objectives that the attracted funds could also be used to repay the issuer's obligations.

Павялічыць

In July 2022, Finstore's commercial director Alexey Stashevsky (if his Linkedin page is to be believed) resigned (as believed in banking circles – taking with him the source code of the Finstore solution) and went to create a competitor to the monopolist. With whom?

In autumn 2022, Stashevsky became the director of a new token placement platform — Fainex (Fainex LLC). As we wrote above, Fainex LLC belongs to GFM-Invest LLC, and that company is 70% owned by Globalfinmarket LLC. In other words, behind two shell companies hide the real owners: 10% of Globalfinmarket LLC belongs to Alexey Stashevsky himself, and 90% to Tamara Novitskaya, Oleg Novitsky's wife.

Thus, the new player in the Belarusian token market de facto came under the control of someone who very recently – as the prosecutor's office would later state – deliberately defrauded investors on another platform on behalf of "Akrykam" and was in the process – as it would later turn out – of a much larger fraud involving "Swiss Leasing" tokens.

Throughout 2023-2024, "Swiss Leasing"'s financial statements began to look very unhealthy for a leasing company, even in the eyes of those who are not investment experts.

Overload with inventory and goods on the balance sheet, low capital turnover, and almost zero profits — and this in a financial organization?

In December 2023, "Swiss Leasing" issued its third emission of tokens on Finstore. The personal property of Novitsky and his wife went as collateral: two parking spaces, two offices…

Perhaps due to unwillingness or inability to pass verification for admission to Finstore, "Swiss Leasing" began offering its tokens on its own platform, Fainex, from September 2024.

And Fainex never disclosed the platform's affiliation with the company for which it was placing tokens.

Anyway, the result is known: on January 28, 2026, the Ministry of Finance published a release "On non-fulfillment of obligations on bonds issued by Swiss Leasing LLC." Non-payment of interest means that the company failed to meet its obligations. Investors were defrauded. Swiss Leasing LLC itself went into liquidation, like the absolute majority of companies opened by Novitsky before it.

How many people were defrauded and for what amount?

As we wrote above, the amount is about 20 million Belarusian rubles. The analytical resource castle.by estimates more precisely that "Swiss Leasing" currently has token obligations for more than 3.6 million dollars, 1.3 million euros, and 4.6 million rubles.

The exact number of investors cannot be named, because in open sources we see the number of buyers for each token issue, but some part of them in each might be the same people. Accordingly, the number of victims ranges from several hundred to a couple of thousand.

Fainex continues its operations.

So where is the money? And where is Novitsky?

We do not know if Oleg Novitsky intended to defraud investors from the very beginning. One could also assume otherwise – simply an inept businessman who failed, although he tried honestly. These are all business risks.

But considering the assessment of his biography and a long history of loss-making businesses and debts, the question arises – what did he risk himself? Did he have his own money? Or was he playing only with other people's money? Or was he repaying his previous debts? Because, in fact, millions disappeared. And this story is perhaps the largest scam on the Belarusian ICO market to date.

The story with "Swiss Leasing" was built on lies from the very beginning. And it's not just about the name and the organization's stamp in the form of a Swiss white cross on a red background.

This company essentially did not engage in any leasing. Its clients are unknown. At the time of the ICO launch, the company didn't even have any employees.

The offer to rent premises in Senitsa is still listed on "Kufar" today. But effectively, the only real clients are Novitsky's many non-profitable companies, as well as the Fainex office. No other companies declared their presence at this address.

We know about the arrests of Novitsky's property from the defrauded investors who are now attending interrogations at the Investigative Committee. A criminal case has been opened against the deputy under Part 4, Article 209 — fraud on an especially large scale. The property in Senitsa has been seized. There are only 825 square meters. The very ones against which the first tokens were issued. It will not be enough to repay obligations to the defrauded retail investors.

Why did Novitsky run for deputy in 2024? In theory, this helped him deceive investors. Another aspect of the question is that land issues in the regions are often resolved with the signatures of such deputies. Perhaps he thought something would work out. And since in today's Belarus any fool who is willing to openly praise the regime and preach to the masses is valuable, the Lukashenka supporters accepted him into their ranks.

Павялічыць

However, it is unknown when the Fanipal voters will next see their deputy. Since October 2025, announcements of Novitsky's public receptions have ceased to be published in the district newspaper.

Where Novitsky is now — in pre-trial detention or at large, and if at large, whether in Belarus or abroad — is unknown. "Nasha Niva" reached his wife by phone; she supposedly promised to call him to the phone, but then the call was cut off, and she stopped answering.

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