Housing on loan: how apartments are taken away under the guise of refinancing
For several years now, a proven fraudulent scheme has been operating in Russia: under the guise of helping to refinance a loan, intermediaries drive the victim into a bonded loan, and then deprive her of real estate. Only a few people manage to return their homes — in many cases, it is not even possible to initiate criminal proceedings, lawyers say. How not to get hooked by scammers and save property — in the Izvestia article.
Loan at 182% per annum
In the spring of 2021, the loan payment became unbearable for Elena Bykovskaya: she was two months overdue, the victim told Izvestia. The remaining debt at that time was about 4.5 million rubles. She took out a loan secured by an apartment in the Moscow region. The banks refused to refinance, but the woman was persistently called from a certain organization that promised to help arrange a new loan on acceptable terms.
The interlocutors convinced Elena that they would be able to solve the problem, and thanks to her connections with banks, she would be offered a new loan on special terms. Therefore, on March 29, 2021, she signed a contract for the provision of intermediary services. But in April, she was told that the credit institutions refused to issue a loan.
— As the investigation later established, the company had no contracts or preferential terms. Moreover, the intermediaries did not send any applications to the banks for loans to Elena," the victim's lawyer Egor Zolkin told Izvestia.
Elena was offered a new solution: the help of a private investor who found out about her difficult financial situation. Allegedly, he will provide money secured by an apartment to repay a bank loan. The woman agreed, because she was sure that she could not refuse the services of intermediaries: she was convinced that in this case she would have to pay a commission.
As a result, on May 14 of the same year, the victim was given a stack of papers to sign.
— I trusted these people, followed their instructions, because they promised to help. I didn't have time to get acquainted with the documents and signed them quickly, I was in a hurry," she explained.
Among the documents signed by the woman was a loan agreement with a private investor for 7.2 million rubles secured by her apartment. The entire amount had to be returned in a month. A penalty was provided for the delay — 0.5% of the loan amount for each day, or 36,020 rubles daily. In terms of 365 days, this is 182.5% per annum.
On the same day, the intermediaries organized a video recording of the alleged transfer of funds under the loan agreement. According to Elena, she was reading a pre-prepared text from a sheet, and immediately after the recording ended, the money was taken from her.
Then she, along with the investor and the company's manager, went to the bank where she had her previous loan. There, the investor handed her the money, which she deposited in the cash register to pay off the debt.
— The purpose of this operation was to remove the encumbrance from the apartment for subsequent sale to a fake buyer. They continued to present what was happening to Elena as debt relief," explained Egor Zolkin.
Already in June 2021, an apartment purchase and sale agreement was signed for 11.6 million rubles - 2.9 million were indicated as the investor's own funds, and the rest was a mortgage. Elena, believing that she was processing the documents related to the loan, approved the deal. She also wrote a receipt for 2.9 million rubles, although, according to her, this money was not transferred to her.
The woman also issued a notarized power of attorney to persons who, according to her lawyer, referring to the case materials, regularly submitted documents for registration of the transfer of rights to real estate, and on its basis, the purchase and sale agreement was transferred to the Federal Register for the Moscow Region. And already in July of the same year, the apartment was registered with a new owner.
After that, 8.7 million rubles of mortgage funds were credited to Elena's account, of which 7.45 million were withdrawn by a representative by proxy. The woman has 1.25 million rubles left. The previous loan had already been repaid.
— I didn't know that my apartment would be sold. I thought I was signing the refinancing documents, but this 1.25 million is the remainder," Elena said.
Unaware of the transfer of ownership, the woman continued to send money to the buyer of her apartment, believing that she was paying off the debt. According to her daughter Oksana, who lives with her family in this apartment, in March 2022, Elena transferred only part of the monthly payment. After that, an unknown man came to them and asked them to contact a representative of the new owner. Oksana did not know about her mother's attempt to refinance the loan.
When everything was discovered, they filed a police report. Despite this, the unknown people came twice more. According to Oksana, they demanded either to buy an apartment or to vacate the living space.
— In 2023, they came for the third time. We weren't at home, only my mother-in-law came in to feed the cat. They came and started drilling the door. The police were called and they were taken away," said the victim's daughter.
In November 2022, the family secured the initiation of a criminal case. In July 2025, the buyer was charged with fraud (available from Izvestia). The document says that a criminal group participated in the commission of the crime, the organizer of which has not been identified. The charges were later dropped.
The buyer is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, Oksana says.
"As part of the bankruptcy, they can take the apartment away from us, but so far it has not been put up for auction or sold, because it is under arrest," the victim's daughter added.
The intermediary company was opened just a month before the first calls, and two years later it was liquidated due to incorrect information, according to the Rusprofile service.
Other similar cases
In October 2025, a verdict was passed in Moscow in a similar case. One of the accused, knowing that the victim would not be given loans from banks, offered to use the service of a "credit donor" — a person with a good credit history, to whom the bank would approve the mortgage. The scheme looked like this: the victim sells the apartment, but continues to live in it, and after paying off the debt, allegedly receives housing back. At the same time, the actual debt was significantly lower than the amount requested from the bank.
In her testimony, the victim also refers to the fact that she was not going to sell her only home. According to her, she was not allowed to read the terms of the contract carefully during its signing.
As a result, the court sentenced one of the accused to 4 years and 6 months in a penal colony, and the other to 4 years. They were also charged 24.5 million rubles in favor of the victim. The appeal upheld the verdict.
The nominal buyer, who took out a mortgage in his own name, was also found guilty and sentenced to 4 years in a penal colony, but the execution of the punishment was postponed until her child reached the age of 14. She was also ordered to return 24.5 million rubles to the bank.
In 2025, a man was convicted of embezzlement of other people's property as part of a criminal group, against whom Elena Bykovskaya issued a power of attorney.
Similar cases are currently being considered in at least three more courts in Moscow.
Izvestia sent a request to the Interior Ministry, but received no response at the time of publication.
Why is it difficult to return the apartment
In recent years, the number of cases of real estate fraud under the guise of refinancing has been growing, lawyer Mikhail Sazanov, a former employee of the central office of the FSB of Russia, told Izvestia.
"The situation is aggravated by the fact that many victims cannot even initiate criminal proceedings, despite the existence of obvious evidence: the police refer to the lack of evidence of a crime or simply delay the verification period and reject the material," he stressed.
At the same time, actions when the owner signs a purchase and sale agreement "instead of refinancing are qualified as fraud," the lawyer noted.
According to him, in such a situation, the will of a person is formed under the influence of deception: the person did not intend to alienate his home, but only wanted to change the terms of the loan. Therefore, in court, receipts and video recordings of money transfers may be considered untenable evidence.
— The main practical barrier for the victim is the status of a bona fide acquirer. It depends on him whether the apartment remains with the "investor" or returns to the seller, — Mikhail Sazanov emphasized.
Dishonesty may be indicated, for example, by a connection with the agency that sold the apartment, or professional experience in the real estate industry — working as a realtor or investment activity.
— The scheme works due to three factors: the victim's legal illiteracy, psychological pressure and lack of due diligence by banks. Fraudsters skillfully exploit people's financial vulnerability: when a person is desperately trying to reduce their credit burden, they lose their vigilance," Sazanov said.
It is difficult to prove the guilt of intruders in such cases, Mikhail Sazanov added, and the problem of apartment fraud under the guise of refinancing is not just a series of individual crimes, "but a challenge to the entire law enforcement system." The scheme works because "fraudsters operate at the intersection of civil and criminal law," skillfully disguising the crime as a legitimate transaction.
"Courts, in turn, are often linked by formal signs: signatures, receipts, notarial documents — and are not always ready to look behind the facade," he concluded.
Igor Bushmanov, Managing Partner of the Avex Just Law Firm, is confident that it is possible to unravel such a scam.
— The signature under the contract is not an indulgence from Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and the video recording of the transfer of money is not a bulletproof vest from criminal liability. But an unprofitable sale of real estate by itself does not prove fraud. The main thing is to establish what the organizers promised the person and what they initially wanted. A conscious sale of an apartment is one situation. The owner's conviction that the sale is only a technical stage of refinancing, and the housing is guaranteed to remain with him, is completely different," notes Igor Bushmanov.
The lawyer emphasizes that if the victim claims that the money was taken away after the shooting, it is necessary to find out who actually disposed of it and on what basis. The camera could have recorded a real calculation, or it could have been a specially staged scene, so, according to the lawyer, the entire chain needs to be investigated: advertising, negotiations, promises, preparation of documents, the appearance of an "investor" and the movement of money. Real estate can be returned, but it requires legal grounds.
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