On July 18, 2025, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) added Aurum Foundation to its list of entities exhibiting “signs of a financial pyramid.” The warning explicitly flags the Dubai-based project as having characteristics of an illegal pyramid scheme, placing it among dozens of other suspicious platforms tracked by Russian authorities.
Launched in mid-2024, Aurum Foundation operates as a classic multi-level marketing (MLM) crypto Ponzi under the public leadership of CEO Bryan Benson, who is based in Dubai. The project follows the well-known Boris CEO template common among Eastern European scammers, which uses polished marketing, fake executive profiles, and promises of passive crypto income to attract investors globally.
Technical analysis of the Aurum Foundation website revealed Russian-language code comments in the source, strongly indicating the real operators are likely Russian nationals also sheltering in Dubai.
As of December 2025, SimilarWeb data shows ~160,000 monthly visits to the Aurum Foundation site. The top countries driving traffic are:
This geographic distribution explains why Russian authorities issued the warning despite the project not actively targeting residents inside Russia—the victims are primarily located in Western markets.
The CBR warning joins a growing list of international alerts against similar Dubai-based MLM crypto schemes. Projects following the Boris CEO blueprint have previously received fraud notices from regulators in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Nigeria, and several European countries.
Key red flags present in Aurum Foundation include:
The Central Bank of Russia pyramid scheme warning is a clear public signal that Aurum Foundation is considered an illegal financial pyramid under Russian law. Combined with its structural characteristics and documented history of similar schemes, the project exhibits all major hallmarks of a Ponzi / pyramid operation.
