The regulator has uncovered a large-scale market manipulation scheme on the organized trading floors of the Moscow Exchange. At the center of the scandal are two private traders, Konstantin and Anastasia Mikhailov, who throughout 2025 conducted coordinated operations with shares of the energy company "OGK-2." Their actions have been classified as a classic pump and dump scheme, with the total volume of operations exceeding 10,000 trades.
The Mechanics of Market Distortion
The essence of the strategy was aggressive influence on quotations. The traders used two complementary tactics. On one hand, they bought up shares through a series of large orders, artificially driving the price up to levels that did not correspond to real demand. At peak values, the accumulated package was sold, locking in profits. On the other hand, a reverse scheme was applied: through aggressive sales, they crashed quotations, after which they bought the securities back at reduced prices. Within a single trading session, such cycles were repeated multiple times.
Particularly alarming is the fact that part of the trades were executed between the participants' own brokerage accounts by prior collusion. This led to significant deviations in price and volumes from market values, creating a false impression of activity and volatility for other investors. Each operation triggered price spikes and increased financial risks for all trading participants.
Regulator's Response and the Role of Technology
Following the investigation, the Central Bank brought both traders to administrative responsibility and also issued orders regarding the inadmissibility of such actions in the future. Trading organizers and professional participants have been instructed to suspend operations on the violators' accounts.
This case is a vivid illustration of why manual detection of such schemes is becoming increasingly ineffective. The volume of suspicious operations is measured in thousands of trades, and automated analysis systems are indispensable here. That is why the Moscow Exchange has already announced the implementation of artificial intelligence in its compliance. As Irina Grekova, Senior Managing Director for Compliance and Business Ethics at the exchange, noted, AI tools accelerate the processing of large data arrays, allowing experts to focus on truly complex cases, such as this one.
My view: This case is not merely a punishment of two dishonest players. It is a signal to the market that the regulator and the exchange are moving toward proactive oversight. In the era of digital finance, where manipulations are becoming increasingly sophisticated, it is the combination of human experience and machine analysis that will become the main barrier to protecting retail investors from such schemes.