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SkyWay Group is a term used to refer to a group of companies that market, finance, and construct elevated rail transport systems commonly referred to as SkyWay. The public has been warned by financial regulators about risky investments in SkyWay Group infrastructure projects.

Overview
The SkyWay Group technology, referred to as 'String Transport', involves the movement of driverless vehicles on sleeperless tracks elevated above the ground on concrete supports. The 'string' refers to the bundle of prestressed tensioned steel wires placed in a concrete-filled body. The SkyWay technology has been marketed as a new type of elevated light rail transportation system.

SkyWay has been designed to transport passengers and cargo. Yunitskiy claims his vehicles can reach speeds of up to 500 kilometers an hour and are reported to cost 20 percent less than normal subways. It is also claimed that this technology involves minimal gas and particle emissions.

History
Anatoly Yunitskiy is the inventor of SkyWay technology and is also the founder, the director and the main shareholder of companies in the SkyWay Group. He designed the technology in 1980 as a system of passenger and cargo capsules that travel by cable car.

In 2001 a prototype of a SkyWay track was constructed in the Russian village Ozyory in Moscow Oblast. The allowable load on this track was tested there using a truck with iron wheels. This site was later deconstructed. A prototype was assessed in Russia in 2008 by the Moscow State University of Railway Engineering concluding that it was "not viable and unsafe".

In October 2015 the SkyWay Group started constructing a test site to demonstrate 'SkyWay' technology. It is situated in Marjina Horka (about 70 km from Minsk) and is called the EcoTechnoPark. In 2016, a Russian government panel that evaluated the technology called it innovative, but only in theory. A prototype of the technology reached speeds of 102 kilomters per hour in 2017. In August 2018 at the EcoFest event, there were three tracks demonstrating prototypes at this site. One is for a vehicle with a maximum capacity of 48 people. The second track is for a 14-seater vehicle and the third is for a 6-seater vehicle.

Company structure
SkyWay Group consists of numerous subsidiaries. The SkyWay Group deals with construction of the technology through numerous subsidiaries. SkyWay Group of Companies controls SkyWay Capital which was launched in 2014 to self-finance the projects. They also own and control other companies like "SWIG International Ltd." registered in London and "SkyWay Capital Inc." which is registered in Saint Lucia. These companies function to collect funds for SkyWay projects.

Established in Belarus, operated from an office complex in Minsk and registered under business names including "Euroasian Rail Skyway Systems Holding Ltd.", "First SkyWay Invest Group Limited" and "Global Transport Investment Inc." in places like the British Virgin Islands, London and Saint Lucia. It has been documented that companies in the SkyWay Group seek potential investors all over the world for the development of an elevated rail transport technology they refer to as SkyWay.

Negotiations
Although countries like Australia, India, Indonesia, Italy and Lithuania started negotiating with the SkyWay Group, they were later cancelled or postponed due to concerns about safety and financial irregularity. No projects have been realized outside Belarus. The most recent negotiations have taken place in the United Arab Emirates.

The SkyWay Group started negotiating with countries like Lithuania, Australia, Slovakia, India, Italy and Indonesia.

Lithuania
During negotiations in 2014 between the SkyWay Group and the municipality of Siauliai in Lithuania an investment agreement was signed, a piece of land was pre-allocated to build a SkyWay test facility and money was transferred by SkyWay to the municipality's bank accounts. The mayor of Siauliai was later criticized for negotiating with the SkyWay Group and at the end of 2014 he was instructed to cancel the negotiations.

In 2014, the Prosecutor General's office of Lithuania started a pre-trial investigation on suspicion of possible financial fraud perpetrated by SkyWay. This investigation was finally closed almost three years later after they couldn't find enough evidence to prosecute the company. In August 2018, SkyWay and its shareholders sued the Lithuanian government for damage done to the company's reputation. The Vilnius regional court dismissed this claim in December 2018 ruling that “there were sufficient grounds for opening the pre-trial investigation".

Australia
In 2016 in South Australia, SkyWay negotiated with Flinders University to build a 500 meter long line for $13 million Australian dollars under the direction of ex-state transport minister Rod Hook who worked for SkyWay as an infrastructure consultant. These negotiations were eventually postponed indefinitely in August 2018.

Slovakia
In July 2016 SkyWay signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava to promote SkyWay technology in Slovakia. The negotiations, however, have been postponed.

India
In May 2017 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the minister of Urban Development of the Northern Indian state Himachal Pradesh with one of the SkyWay Group companies.

In July 2017 the minister who negotiated with SkyWay was criticised for doing so "without following proper procedures" and doubts were raised over the safety and viability of the project. As a result, negotiations in India have been postponed.

Indonesia
In September 2017 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the University of Indonesia in West Java to build on-campus 'sky trains'.

In December 2017 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Jakarta for a proposed project in Kalimantan.

In February 2018 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the Gadjah Mada University in Central Java to promote research and innovation in the field of transportation.

Members of the Indonesian public complained about the suspicious sale of investment products and the OJK (the Indonesian financial regulatory agency) added SkyWay Capital to its list of prohibited companies. As a result all negotiations in Indonesia were finally cancelled or postponed and the activities of the Indonesian subsidiary "PT SkyWay Technologies Indonesia" were frozen.

Italy
In early 2018 negotiations took place in Italy. The Secretary of State for the Republic of San Marino signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the EcoTechnoPark in Belarus in March 2018 for the construction of the San Marino-Rimini line. The mayor of the Sicilian city Messina also used SkyWay's "flying trams" to promote his electoral campaign. Both negotiations were postponed or cancelled because of concerns brought up in local politics and by the Italian regulatory agency Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB).

In March 2019, Brianza - a region in North-West Lombardy, Italy - invited SkyWay to present a feasibility project for a cable car between Cologno Monzese and Vimercate. Due to controversy surrounding the company these negotiations have been postponed.

United Arab Emirates
In October 2018 an investment agreement was signed between the SkyWay Group and Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park in the United Arab Emirates and 25 hectares was allocated to build a SkyWay test-site there.

In February 2019 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai with the "Skyway Greentech Company" to develop 'sky pods' there.

In April 2019 the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, approved a SkyWay suspended transit system.

Marketing
In addition to demonstration models at the EcoTechnoPark in Belarus, the company has exhibited its technology at trade fairs like the 3rd Singapore International Transport Congress and Exhibition (SITCE) and InnoTrans 2018 in Berlin. The SkyWay Group markets itself primarily by promoting investment in its technology to small investors.

The SkyWay Group have been seeking potential investors all over the world using various forms of marketing such as crowdfunding, telemarketing and multi-level marketing where investors are promised remuneration for convincing other people to invest in SkyWay. It has also been documented that the SkyWay Group promote their technology with paid advertising on television and in newspapers, and that financial services are being offered via social media.

SkyWay Group companies like "SkyWay Capital" offer "astronomical" returns on investment. Companies that are engaged in attracting investment, however, have not received permission to sell shares in the countries in which they are active. They also disclaim any liability if investors lose their money. Financial regulatory agencies have warned that these companies show the characteristics of a pyramid scheme and that they could be involved in a scam.

The company "Sky Way Invest Group Limited" also launched financial training courses for a fee which it marketed as 'Educational Investment Packages' (EIPs). CONSOB, the Italian financial regulatory agency, banned the sale and advertisement of these investment products in February 2018 because it turned out instead of receiving the "investment training courses" advertised, customers unwittingly ended up with "gift certificates" that could later be converted to company shares on the occasion of its IPO.

No SkyWay company is currently registered to offer securities in any jurisdiction they operate in.

Early in 2019 the SkyWay Group started marketing its investment products as new types of 'cryptocurrencies' in the form of SkyWay Tokens and CryptoUnits. They claim that this new investment product is based on the value of real assets and that it will generate monthly dividends. These claims, however, have been disputed.

Financial regulation
National banks and regulatory agencies have warned the public about the activities performed by companies in the SkyWay Group. Italy and Germany have actively prohibited against these activities.

The first regulatory warning was released in 2014 in Lithuania. The Bank of Lithuania released an official statement warning investors that unidentified individuals invited Lithuanian residents to invest in "next-generation string transport" by acquiring on-line shares of the private limited company which was selling them without a prospectus approved by a competent authority. The Bank of Lithuania shared this warning widely “so that it is known in all countries that this company is engaged in illegal activities”.

In 2018 The International Organization of Securities Commissions (OICV-IOSCO) released a number of warnings related to the activities of SkyWay Group companies such as "SkyWay Capital" and "Sky Way Invest Group".

In February 2018 the Italian regulatory agency CONSOB prohibited the advertisement and sale of certain SkyWay investment products to Italian citizens.

In May 2019 the German regulatory agency BaFin prohibited the public offering of SkyWay investment products to the general public.

Criticism
Concerns have been raised in published articles about information the company has posted about itself to promote investment. These concerns include the unrealistic returns promised to investors, the value of its intellectual property, the certification of its technology, awards it has won, excessive pre-order contracts, the validity of its patents, and people/organisations who have invested in the company.

Particular criticism relates to misleading information about proposed SkyWay projects. Onliner.by (a popular Belarusian news portal), for example, document that the claims SkyWay made about a proposed project in Mogilev were actually untrue. Similar misleading promotion has been documented relating to proposed projects in Russia, the Crimea and India.

The first article by Onliner.by was published in September 2016 and it was commenting on the EcoTechnoPark testing facility being built at the time in Marjina Horka. Anatoly Yunitskiy sued them for damage done to his company and his reputation. Yunitskiy lost the case in June 2017 and was required to pay costs incurred by the defendant. He appealed unsuccessfully against this dismissal.

In May 2017 the Volzhskaya Kommuna newspaper published a critical article on their 'Volga News' information portal about a telemarketing campaign used for funding in Samara. The company's representative Andrei Khovratov filed a lawsuit against the editorial board but in March 2018 the court decided against the plaintiff.

In July 2017 the popular Crimea news sender Primechaniya.ru published an article critical of a telemarketing campaign promoting investment in an unsupported SkyWay project in Sevastopol. Later articles they published include information about legal threats issued by SkyWay employee Andrei Khovratov who represented SkyWay in the Crimea and the unsuccessful litigation in Minsk and Samara.