Urban University

History

2025

Initiation of a criminal case on fraud worth ₽1 billion

On April 17, 2025, it became known that the investigative authorities of Kazan opened a criminal case on fraud on an especially large scale against the organizers of the Urban University online university, which operated under the guise of Edex LLC. According to preliminary data from law enforcement agencies, the total damage from the activities of the educational platform is about ₽1 billion. Thousands of students from 80 regions of Russia and several foreign countries were recognized as victims.

According to AiF, the organizers of the online university have created an elaborate scheme to attract customers through Telegram tests and phone calls from managers. Potential students were promised free tuition, which will allegedly be paid by the state, and guaranteed employment in large IT companies after several months of study.

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Фото: Freepik

To enroll in the courses, future students issued loans for amounts from ₽140 to ₽250 thousand. Representatives of Urban University assured customers that the company would independently pay off these loans. However, by the end of 2024, the educational organization stopped making payments to banks, and the entire credit burden fell on the shoulders of students.

Acting Deputy Minister, Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Tatarstan Rustem Sadykov said that the company had a license for additional education, but this did not prevent its leaders from carrying out fraudulent actions. Currently, the company is closed, its office in Innopolis is sealed, and the organizers - Timur Kalimullin and Maxim Pozdnyshev - have been arrested in another criminal case.

The quality of the educational services provided by Urban University turned out to be extremely low. Teachers in the company often changed, educational materials were unfinished, and the promised internships in leading IT companies were never organized. Not only students, but also teachers suffered from the actions of fraudsters: out of 2,000 specialists who worked at an online university, units received a full salary.^[1]

Thousands of students took IT credits at university, but faculty vanished

At the end of January 2025, it became known that thousands of students of the Urban University online university, which is registered in Innopolis, were deceived. They took loans for IT training, but the platform teachers disappeared, ceasing to communicate.

Urban University's website says the university specializes in a narrow range of IT professions, which "allows each student to graduate as a true professional." The platform, in particular, prepares iOS developers, Frontend developers, UI/UX designers, QA testers, Python developers and business analysts. The cost of training in all cases begins at 12 thousand rubles per month.

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Фото: Freepik

According to CNews, before concluding a training contract, future students were contacted by Urban Univercity managers, offering several payment options - immediately or in installments. For those students who were not suitable for the first option, managers sent a reference to payment, convincing them to sign a loan agreement. The amount of loans ranged from 140 thousand to 200 thousand rubles.

According to one of the students, communication with teachers took place through chats. However, at the end of December 2024, these chats were closed, and the teachers stopped answering. As a result, students do not receive the promised knowledge and cannot return their money while remaining with loans. Deceived Urban Univercity students from all over Russia have merged into a group in Telegram (Urbanrediska), which includes more than 3 thousand people (as of the end of January 2025). Students appealed to Rospotrebnadzor, the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee, and also wrote a collective complaint to the presidential administration of Russia. In response to these appeals, as noted by the Office of Rospotrebnadzor in the Republic of Tatarstan, 87 million rubles will be returned to students.^[2]

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