Former Stripper's Trading School Leaves Chelyabinsk Investors Broke

Participants of a trading school run by Dmitry Chugunov from Chelyabinsk have accused him of losing large sums of their money. The investment services of the man, who once worked as a stripper, gained popularity during the pandemic. In 2023, the system failed, and the promised monthly dividend payments of 5% stopped, but the blogger continued to expand his client base as if nothing had happened. Some have accepted that their invested funds are gone, while others have filed complaints with the police and prosecutor«s office. People are outraged that their »mentor« has moved to Montenegro and, despite complaining about money problems, periodically shows off a luxurious lifestyle. He, however, explains that he was also deceived by colleagues and lost control of the process in the chaos. We present the stories of the unlucky investors and the explanations of their »financial guru«.

«I have a receipt, just like everyone else»

Several residents of Chelyabinsk who cannot get their money back from Dmitry Chugunov contacted the editorial office of 74.RU. In 2018, he opened the trading school TraderCamp, whose unique feature was travel-based meetups combined with training on stock trading. At first, groups went to nature spots near the city, then they began flying abroad. Dmitry Chuga—as he calls himself online—shared information about the trips and his successes on his blog. A separate section contained investor testimonials—people wrote about how they managed to earn money with his advice, and the flow of clients grew. In Chelyabinsk, the investors« club gathered for parties.

Some clients came to Chugunov from his «past life», having known him for many years since his days as a stripper in nightclubs. One of them is 43-year-old Natalya, who watched for a long time as some of her acquaintances and friends received payments from Dmitry and also offered the trader to manage her money. This was in the summer of 2022.

«My friend invested about 200,000–300,000 rubles (about $2,200–$3,300 at current rates) and received 10% per month. Such very pleasant dividends. And some of our mutual acquaintances had the same story. For about two years, he paid everyone. And I also decided it was worth trying,» Natalya said. «He is an old acquaintance, we all socialized in the same group. I deposited 300,000 rubles (about $3,300), I have a receipt, just like everyone else. He sends profit reports, payments are coming. I see that everything is good, and I deposited another 600,000 rubles (about $6,600). And literally two months later, he stops paying—to everyone.»

Oksana was also part of Chugunov«s social circle and in the spring of 2022 gave him twice as much as Natalya—1.8 million rubles (about $20,000). Before her, there were also several examples of friends who regularly received payments. But she never saw the promised dividends. Although the invested funds were not the family»s last, losing them was, of course, sad.

«We divorced, and I was left alone with three children. This was our »safety cushion,« investment money, and now it»s gone. We have enough money for daily life, but we gave up traveling. I can«t afford to go anywhere with the children. We only go to a camp in the Chelyabinsk region with them—that»s it,« Oksana described the situation. »I wanted easy money, it happens that it doesn«t work out.»

«He»ll get everything back for you in three months now«

In a chat for those waiting for payments from Dmitry Chugunov, there are more than 80 people. Let«s present a couple more illustrative stories. Yelena, unlike the trader»s previous clients, decided to invest on credit, which was preceded by a series of financial failures with other loans.

«The year 2023 became a year of losses for me. I borrowed money for my boyfriend»s business, but he left me for another woman, and his venture failed. In the end, I lost my car and apartment, which I had to give up for debts. I saw an offer from Dmitry Chugunov as my last chance to improve my financial situation. Many of my acquaintances were receiving payments from him,« Yelena said. »I only found out later that he had stopped paying about a year earlier.«

A year later, Yelena was forced to go through bankruptcy proceedings; she is now gradually getting back on her feet—she bought a car and is saving for a down payment to buy a home.

Natalya has the most complex and dramatic story. From 2020 to 2023, she sent Chuga seven million rubles (about $77,800). Since 2008, she had run a business in Chelyabinsk: her assets included a chain of home goods stores, real estate, and cars.

«After the pandemic, we wanted to move abroad, I even lived there for several years, and in Chelyabinsk I was gradually selling everything,» Natalya said. «He knew I had money, including about a million rubles (about $11,100) invested in Russian stocks. When after the start of the special military operation they all plummeted, Dima and his wife persuaded me in unison to give them to him to manage: »He«ll get everything back for you in three months now.» And that million also went into the same «pot» where everything eventually burned up.«

Regarding Natalya as a major investor, the trader initially fulfilled his obligations: for the first two years, he paid her 5% per month; there were delays, but the money eventually came. On this wave, her parents, who had savings in euros, also decided to become clients of Chuga.

«The percentage there was smaller, three or four,» Natalya continued. «They first invested 10,000 euros. They received two payments, were overjoyed, thought this was a wonderful pension. And they gave him the remaining 10,000 euros. And that»s it, no more payments. They called him, wrote to him, he kept citing temporary difficulties, but didn«t send the money.»

Against the background of stress, Natalya«s mother fell ill; at that time she was abroad, and standard insurance did not cover the costs of treating a rare autoimmune disease: it developed very rapidly.

«My parents decided to sell their apartment in Chelyabinsk to cover the expenses. And they were left with nothing, without a home. Right from the clinic, I called Dmitry Chugunov demanding he return the money. But he answered that he couldn»t help in any way and wished me health,« Natalya added.

In the end, her mother received treatment at the Sklyifosovsky Emergency Medicine Research Institute in Moscow, but she became disabled and could no longer work (she was of pre-retirement age). Now the family lives only on the father«s pension. Natalya took on three jobs to help her relatives and support herself:

«I work in the marketplace sector. I have my own store, but there isn»t enough money, and I also got a job as a manager, helping others with their stores, setting everything up. I work from eight in the morning until my eyes give out. I don«t have Saturdays, Sundays, or New Year»s. I just work.«

From two grandmothers to 200 investors

35-year-old Dmitry Chugunov, judging by his Instagram* blog (an extremist organization whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation) with 30,000 subscribers, has not changed his professional profile. He talks about how to achieve success in trading, as well as about sports, weight loss, and life in Montenegro. In almost every reel, he dances (including shirtless), recalling his past in Chelyabinsk. It«s no wonder his motto is: »I dance while the capital grows.«

We asked the blogger-trader why he lost his clients« money and how he plans to return it (and if he plans to at all).

In response to the first question, he gave a link to a one-and-a-half-hour podcast with Maksim Motruk on YouTube. There, Chuga explained in detail how he lost $20 million. But he started with the backstory: from 2013 to 2015, he invested on his own, without attracting money from other people, and then it all started with «two spunky grannies» who each gave him half a million rubles. Dmitry admitted that he tried to teach them trading, but he didn«t succeed.

«I took 500,000 from each of the two under a fixed 5% per month. My average income is about 13–15%, it»s profitable for me, and for them it«s a good supplement to their pension. And she was once a chief accountant, earned a nice apartment in the center, the utilities for which were more than her pension. A person needs to be helped. I»m ready to help all grannies. And in the end, that«s how, by »word of mouth,« a lot of investors gathered,» the trader clarified.

By the beginning of 2023, Dmitry Chugunov had about 200 private investors, he said in the podcast. According to him, he invested more of his own money than from other people, so he could hedge in case of unsuccessful trades. In September of the same year, the blogger moved from Chelyabinsk to Montenegro.

«Since 2016, I»ve been feeding everyone, and people got used to my […] results. They live on them, they count on them. But I started having delays with payments. Firstly, there«s a lot of income, but the limits are limited. Back then, I could only send one million rubles a day through the bank,» Chugunov explained in the podcast. «If my profit was 15%, then distributing the profit took a month and a half. Secondly, problems began with Federal Law 115. They block me. Investors »get restless,« start threatening me with gangsters, murder, court, criminal cases.»

«Earning millions again—it»s quite difficult«

Around the same time, Chuga was deceived by his «drops»—people through whom he conducted transfers for a 10% commission, he continued his story. According to him, they disappeared with another large tranche of $250,000. But the biggest problem wasn«t that. Further quoting the blogger:

«In all this running around, I didn»t monitor how my trades were being copied. I only saw what was on my accounts. In March, I had a 49% profit, and in April the copy trading system broke. And only in July did I find out I had a little problem. And all the «drops» were liquidated. And here it«s not even trading»s fault, I«m still the best trader of anyone you know. 20 million [rubles, about $222,200] was lost.»

As for fulfilling obligations to the Chelyabinsk residents, Dmitry Chuga said the following in a conversation with a correspondent from 74.RU:

«Now I»m recovering, every month we have calls with investors, in the last six months I«ve even managed to do this regularly, as much as possible. Naturally, we»re talking about small payments, because earning millions again—that«s quite difficult.»

«Montenegro extradites»

The majority of the trader«s victims in Chelyabinsk decided not to contact the police because they don»t believe it will help them in any way. Nevertheless, several people did file complaints back in 2023. But the case hasn«t moved forward since then, according to lawyer Sergey Bubentsov, who represents the interests of one of Chuga»s clients. He believes the investigation should be conducted not by a district police department.

«In terms of objective evidence under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud)—it»s obvious. In the contracts, each client has certain obligations, the person takes them on and doesn«t fulfill them, all of this is recorded by transfers. Moreover, the person takes on new obligations when he hasn»t fulfilled the previous ones yet. This is a typical pyramid scheme,« Sergey Bubentsov explained. »He just created the appearance that he was paying dividends, but not to everyone and not in the promised amount. The [criminal] elements are rock-solid, take it and open [a criminal case]. But this isn«t a district level, it»s a regional level, it«s the Main Investigative Department, because there are many victims. Also, the institution of extradition: that»s the prosecutor«s office and the general prosecutor»s office, but Montenegro extradites [suspects in criminal cases]. But that requires work. It«s easier when, say, Ivan hit Manya in the kitchen and sits with a confession.»

The editorial office has a response from the prosecutor«s office of the Central District to Sergey Bubentsov»s complaint about police inaction regarding complaints against the trader. It states that «a demand has been made to the head of the investigation department for crimes in the area served by the »Central« police department of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Chelyabinsk to eliminate violations of the law.» The decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case was overturned by the prosecutor«s office in the fall of 2025.

We made an inquiry to the city police department. According to the police, work on the victims« complaints, of which three have been counted, is ongoing.

«The »Central« police department is conducting a pre-investigation check based on citizens» complaints about the non-fulfillment of contractual payment obligations by a 35-year-old resident of Chelyabinsk,« the city police department reported. »All those who applied to the internal affairs bodies have been interviewed, the police are carrying out the entire range of necessary measures with subsequent procedural decisions in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.«