A Syrian national named Almous A. has been sentenced to seven years in a Russian penal colony for swindling fellow Middle Eastern expatriates out of 120 million rubles through a fake university quota scheme in Moscow.
The Moscow City Court upheld the conviction on June 30, 2026, rejecting an appeal by the defendant and ordering him to pay tens of millions of rubles in restitution to victims of the fraud.
The decision confirmed an earlier judgment by the Gagarinsky District Court of Moscow from October 2025, which found Almous A. guilty of four counts of fraud on a particularly large scale. Under the financial terms of the ruling, the defendant was ordered to pay 22.47 million rubles to one victim and 46.5 million rubles to a second victim.
Fake Ministry Connections
According to reports published by the Russian news channel Mash, the suspect targeted natives of the Middle East residing in Russia by presenting himself as an influential broker with high-level access to education officials. He claimed to maintain personal links within the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and alleged that he was acquainted with a former deputy minister.
To establish credibility with prospective victims, Almous A. produced a forged Russian residence permit. He told clients that his alleged official contacts allowed him to reserve secured study places for foreign applicants at major Russian universities.
Educational Pyramid Scheme
Investigators determined that the operation functioned as a classic financial pyramid, drawing in dozens of victims. Almous A. accepted payments for the promised academic quotas, frequently formalizing the transactions as short-term loans carrying annual interest rates of 20 percent or higher.
The fraud focused on admission quotas at two prominent Moscow institutions, RUDN University and Rosbiotech. In addition to taking money directly from students, Almous A. sold reserved positions to secondary brokers, who were permitted to markup the places and resell them to buyers at any price.
Background and Appeal Hearing
RUDN University, officially known as the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, was established in Moscow in 1960 and serves as one of the country's primary destinations for international students from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Rosbiotech, formerly known as the Russian State University of Biotechnology, is a major public research institution specializing in applied science and food technology. University quotas for foreign nationals are administered directly through federal ministry programs rather than private agents.
During his appeal hearing before the Moscow City Court, Almous A. requested a reduced sentence, citing remorse for his conduct, a partial admission of guilt, the death of his father, and the severe illness of his mother. The judicial panel rejected the arguments and kept his seven-year general-regime colony sentence intact.
The conviction forms part of ongoing judicial proceedings against fraud networks operating in major Russian cities. In a related ruling reported alongside the case, a court in Ekaterinburg sentenced a local woman to one year and six months in a general-regime colony for defrauding two elderly pensioners of 460,000 rubles.
