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Businesses affiliated to Algoritm were involved in widely publicised social programmes in the region. Valeriy Nikolayevich Sytnik, who at the time headed the regional Association of Medium and Small Business, says this about Gorin and his Algoritm:
"This was the biggest pyramid scheme in the area. Only Russkiy Dom Selenga and MMM could compete with it in Tambov. Gorin clearly had the backing of the regional administration. My personal impression was that Algoritm was being run by senior local officials. It was given all the help it needed to develop and expand. For example, all the official papers and TV channels in the region were running commercials only for Algoritm. The rumour was that Gorin himself was in with the administration. If you needed something doing, you went to Gorin."
But in 1997 the pyramid collapsed, and the regional economic crime squad opened a criminal case. Gorin went on the run, more likely from the duped savers than from the authorities. He is known to have regularly visited the regional Interior Ministry office and held meetings with the chief of the economic crime squad, about once a fortnight. Everyone aware of this assumed he was handing over money to have the case put on hold.
"Gorin certainly had money, because he was staying in a luxury room at the Sport hotel in Moscow," Sytnik says. "Interestingly, at the time the regional administration was temporarily out of the picture. The regional governor who took office in 1993 had to make way for a term before he got himself re-elected. Also interestingly, as soon as the old administration returned, so did Gorin from his 'exile'. And his fortunes immediately took a turn for the better."
Incidentally, in the mid-90s the Sport hotel was linked to a criminal gang from one of the regions adjacent to Moscow. It was said to be the HQ of a big name in the underworld.
The main lead
Gorin clearly possessed secrets that could prove dangerous for many powerful people in the region. Even if he was only nominally in charge of the pyramid, he had handled the kind of money for which people could meet a sticky end. And still do out in the provinces.
"There's one aspect that puzzles me," says Yuriy Antonenko, a prominent Tambov journalist and editor of the Zhizn newspaper who for several years has been investigating the Gorins' disappearance. "In the mid-90s round here, businessmen were being killed in their droves. Today, the so-called Kumarin gang, which is known to be the biggest organised crime outfit in St Petersburg, 'runs' absolutely everything in this town. The gang has excellent connections in the regional administration. One of the members of the regional assembly is known to be a big wheel in the underworld here and the Kumarin gang's local representative. In other words, the local criminal, business and official communities are all interlinked. Understand? Now then, as far as I'm aware, Gorin never had any trouble with either officialdom or the criminal world. That means he was an insider. And since vast sums of money were passing through his hands, he was due his cut. Gorin's problems only started when there was a brief change of governor. A prosecution was filed against him and he was put on the wanted list. Only in a manner of speaking, of course. It was no secret that he was regularly turning up in town and meeting the then chief of the organised crime squad."
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