Lillevyali rejected any suggestion that he lost or is withholding client funds. He said the most he ever had under management was about $140 million and that about $35 million belonging to about 30 people is now frozen, mainly due to “compliance issues” related to sanctions. U.S. and European sanctions only apply to a few dozen Russians, none of whom are known clients. He said “a large number” of customers are getting repaid, though he didn’t name any.

“It’s like a bad movie,” said one customer angry at what he described as being stonewalled for months.

In an online interview last year, Lillevyali said he’d developed a “radically new approach” to investing that’s based on artificial intelligence, “complex algorithms” and “integrated processing.” The Swiss website of GL Asset Management, which expounded on this strategy, was taken down this month.

In his last confirmed Twitter post, on Feb. 9,  Lillevyali urged investors to study chess. He’s repeatedly boasted of having beaten former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov, one of the highest-rated grandmasters ever. Karpov’s assistant in Moscow said she couldn’t confirm or deny that claim.

What then-employees of GL said they didn’t know when they were partying on the 62nd floor of the Federation Tower in December was that months earlier Lillevyali had exited the ownership structure of his main Russian vehicle for attracting clients, Ankor Invest, regulatory filings show. Then in March, Russia’s central bank pulled Ankor’s license for “numerous” violations of securities law it didn’t identify. Lillevyali, a dual citizen of Russia and Estonia, said Ankor’s main infraction was that most of the company’s assets were held outside Russia, mainly in Europe. The central bank gave Ankor until the end of this month to wind down operations.

When he finally got through, he said he was told his money was “stuck in the bank” and he hasn’t been able to reach anyone since

Swiss financial watchdog Finma and Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority have asked at least one client who filed a complaint about GL to provide more information so they can investigate further, according to correspondences seen by Bloomberg. Finma and the FCA both declined to comment.

An American client who worked in Russia from 2014 to 2017 and is now based in Switzerland said Ankor’s demise came as a surprise because he’d seen steady returns of about 7 percent a year—at least on paper—since a relationship manager at the firm first reached out to him via LinkedIn in 2015.

Like other clients, he said he was impressed that GL’s web of affiliates seemed to have well-established operations in Switzerland. He said an executive in the Zurich office held a video conference with him and the firm’s representatives in Russia had Swiss mobile numbers and addresses on their business cards.

He invested $100,000 the first year then another $100,000 in each of the following two years, money he said he was saving for a house and his children’s education. The company was attentive and sent him annual gifts, first a bronze statue and then an expensive calligraphy set.