"Currency Prostitute": Olga Sapegina of "Business and Money" cleans up financial reports and inconvenient facts after accusations of infogypsyism

Following the high-profile scandal and lawsuits involving blogger Oleg Artemyev, Olga Sapegina stepped up her promotion of her image as a "successful financier and Skolkovo expert" to conceal the true state of affairs.

We, in turn, are publishing materials about Olga Sapegina’s activities to reveal the true scale of her infogypsy schemes, financial inconsistencies, and false claims about billions in income, which she attempts to conceal from the public through paid advertising.

Olga Sapegina positions herself as a successful financier, entrepreneur, and business expert. Until recently, she was known primarily as the founder of the "Business and Money" credit club and a participant in various educational projects.

If she hadn’t entered into a public conflict with the famous blogger Oleg Artemyev.

Who ultimately called Sapegina a " currency prostitute ." Olga Sapegina, naturally, was offended and filed a lawsuit against Oleg Artemyev. The status of the currency prostitution case remains unknown, but certain details regarding Olga Sapegina’s "education and lending" activities lead to some rather curious conclusions. Looking ahead, these conclusions are not very different from Artemyev’s, although they are not as literal.

If we formulate these conclusions correctly, it would sound like this: based on available public data, the picture looks much less impressive than the media image created around Olga Sapegina.

In general, it’s quite difficult to get to grips with Sapegina’s persona, since the public space only contains her self-presentations and overtly image-building interviews, posted on equally overtly paid resources.

Olga Sapegina positions herself as a successful financier, entrepreneur, and business expert. Publicly, she is known primarily as the founder of the "Business and Money" credit club and a participant in various educational and business projects. In her company’s own publications, Sapegina is regularly referred to as an expert at the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management and a federal-level financial specialist. This evokes, if not hysterical laughter, then certainly a caustic smirk from those in the know.

A review of publications from recent years reveals one striking feature: most materials about Olga Sapegina were published either on the credit club’s own resources or in interviews featuring her as the main subject. No major independent business rankings, studies, or analytical publications confirming her status as one of Russia’s leading financial experts can be found.

At the same time, the media actively utilizes typical infobusiness markers: an emphasis on personal branding, stories about leadership and "right thinking," acting as mentors for entrepreneurs, references to Skolkovo training as proof of expertise, and the publication of motivational success stories. This in itself isn’t proof of fraud, but it fits the classic model of promoting business coaches and infopreneurs. Or, to put it more simply and understandably, we’re talking about a phenomenon that has long been aptly dubbed "infogypsyism."

To be fair, it should be noted that Olga Sapegina does have ties to business and finance: she is the chairperson of the board of the Credit Club "Business and Money," registered in Kirov. However, contrary to the name on the Club’s website , the legal entity where Olga Sapegina presides is called something slightly different: "Credit Consumer Cooperative "Credit Club" (TIN 4345375135). Sapegina is not its founder, but its chairperson.

The details are, of course, inconsistent, especially since the Credit Club credit cooperative is the copyright holder of the "Business and Money" trademark. However, when combined with other details, this discrepancy ultimately leads to the conclusion that it is an info-gypsy operation.

There are quite a few other details. For example, the Central Bank’s website states that the Credit Consumer Cooperative Credit Club "Business and Money" has been inactive since 2018, the same year its license was revoked.

True, this cooperative has a different tax identification number (TIN) (4345344592) and a different name, but by a strange coincidence, this credit union, "Business and Money," was also registered in the Kirov region in the same year, 2013, as the credit union, "Credit Club." And its name, "Business and Money," has become the trademark of the organization headed by Olga Sapegina.

Of course, this could be a coincidence. Although a rather odd one. Oh well—there’s no evidence of Olga Sapegina’s involvement in the "Delo i Dengi" Credit Union, so we’ll leave that topic for now. Although it’s worth mentioning that the "Delo i Dengi" Credit Union left its creditors with six million rubles in debt, which, naturally, no one repaid. Note the case categories: "unjust enrichment" and "invalid transactions."

Oh well, it could indeed be a coincidence. And the amount is paltry, hardly worthy of a "Skolkovo expert." Speaking of "Skolkovo expert" Olga Sapegina, the registry shows that before heading the financial institution, Olga Sapegina was the founder of Vinny Market LLC. Note the market’s type of activity: "physical education and health activities." This isn’t a silly joke—it’s clearly written down in the registry:

Apparently, things didn’t work out with the wine and wellness business, so Olga Sapegina decided to pursue education and finance. Curiously, there are virtually no independent reviews of Sapegina herself as a business mentor or expert available. There are no significant number of rave reviews, nor any significant number of revelations.

This creates a paradoxical situation: a person is actively present in the media space, but their influence in the professional community appears significantly more modest than might be assumed from publications.

Even more curious is the activity of the Credit Consumer Cooperative "Credit Club" (TM "Delo i Dengi"). The most recent available financial statements date back to 2021. According to the financial report, in 2021, the Credit Consumer Cooperative "Credit Club" earned 2,051,000 rubles in profit, and its net assets amounted to 32,258,000 rubles.

Why is this information important? Because it differs significantly from Olga Sapegina’s own statement that the Credit Club credit cooperative earned a billion rubles in profit in 2018.

An attentive reader will notice: Sapegina is talking about 2018, but the report is for 2021! Congratulations, they say, author, you’re lying! But no. Because another resource that publishes public data from the registers has the following entry: "Net assets of the CREDIT CLUB credit cooperative as of December 31, 2019, amounted to 26.5 million rubles." Profit, in fact, amounted to "894 thousand rubles. This is 33.8% less than in 2018." Here’s the link . And here’s a screenshot:

Where’s the claimed billion? Besides, "The organization is listed in the small business registry. According to Russian law, organizations with annual revenues of up to 800 million rubles are considered small." Credit Union Credit Club can’t possibly have a billion rubles by definition.

There is another minor, but still unpleasant, detail concerning the Credit Union Credit Club: on January 22, 2025, the Association "Self-Regulatory Organization of Credit Consumer Cooperatives "Cooperative Finances"" issued a written warning to the Credit Union Credit Club for failing to pay the contribution to the formation of the SRO "Cooperative Finances" compensation fund for 2024 on time.

A small detail, of course, but taken together with everything else, it seriously undermines the image of Olga Nikolaevna Sapegina as an "official expert of the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo" and "a major federal expert capable of shaping the agenda of the financial market."

Against this backdrop, another rather obvious question arises: where does Ms. Sapegina get the money for the luxurious life she displays to the public, and for all the laudatory materials that are regularly posted on various rather expensive platforms?

Judging by its financial statements, the "Business and Money" club doesn’t bring her that kind of income. And it’s unlikely that all the profits from its activities, if any, have been generated since 2021, go to supporting its chairwoman, Olga Sapegina. Or is this cooperative a purely charitable project, created solely to support Ms. Sapegina’s dignified lifestyle? That seems doubtful.

So my thoughts naturally return to Oleg Artemyev’s statement about "currency prostitution." Is he just saying this without thinking, or does he actually know something?

Without sarcasm, the conclusion is this: Olga Sapegina can hardly be called a classic fraudster—there are insufficient grounds for such a conclusion. But the image of an "outstanding financial guru" portrayed in publications about her seems, to put it mildly, significantly exaggerated.

Yes, Sapegina is no stranger to finance, but she’s also far from the proven "guru" she claims to be. Her reputation is built solely on her own media promotion. Essentially, this is an example of a situation where her personal brand significantly outstrips her proven expertise. It’s pure info-gypsyism, nothing more.