Former Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov has become a defendant in a criminal case involving Finiko. RBC sources claim that he was charged with large-scale fraud and organizing a criminal community. The investigation considers the ex-minister one of the possible organizers of the financial pyramid scheme.

Finiko appeared in Kazan, Nikiforov's hometown, and promised investors returns of up to 25% per annum through investments in securities and cryptocurrency. According to the investigation, the organizers did not conduct real investment activities. The pyramid scheme collapsed in the summer of 2021, and the number of victims, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is in the thousands.

Nikiforov's connection to the project was rarely discussed publicly until recently. According to media reports, one of Finiko's co-founders, Eduard Sabirov, who entered into an agreement with the investigation after extradition to Russia, may have testified against him. Eduard Sabirov was Nikiforov's business partner in a project aimed at attracting investments to Innopolis.

A separate intrigue is related to the former minister's departure. The Kazan publication "Business Online" claims that Nikiforov was supposed to be detained on August 31, but a few hours before that, he flew out of Russia on a private jet. Presumably, he went to the UAE, where he had been living in recent years. According to the publication, Nikiforov was able to leave the country due to an information leak in law enforcement agencies. However, there has been no official confirmation of this hypothesis yet.

Nikiforov headed the Ministry of Communications from 2012 to 2018 and, at the age of 29, became the youngest federal minister in post-Soviet Russia at the time of his appointment.