The million won in the lottery did not bring happiness – the woman did not even understand how she lost all the money.

Unbelievable, but these financial transactions were carried out by the accountant for half a year and none of her employers noticed. And it only went public when the financier of the company, in order to present a financial statement to the bank, reviewed the balance sheets provided by the accountant, who was caught with large sums of money constantly being transferred to a company in the United Kingdom. .

When the financier asked the accountant why she had ordered abroad, she immediately admitted that she would soon get the money back because … she won a million in the lottery! Yes, a million, although almost as much, had already paid for their representation of fraudsters posing as lawyers.

There is no cure for naivety. This old saying would suit an accountant who has now been fired from one company, because she wasted the high-value property of another, Regina Ragelytė, a 50-year-old resident of Marijampolė, was not only prosecuted, but also found guilty. committing this criminal offense.

The Lithuanian Court of Appeal announced that the Kaunas Regional Court, which had examined the criminal case, had reasonably not only sentenced the woman, but also sentenced her to three years in prison, postponing her execution for two years. Furthermore, during the suspended sentence, the convicted persons were prohibited from leaving their place of residence and ordered to work or register with the Employment Service.

The court also ruled that R. Ragelytė, who did not have a happy life with foreign money, could not work in financial activities for three years and would have to pay his employer more than 907 thousand. European compensation for property damage, 5 per cent. Annual interest on the amount of compensation awarded (approximately 12 thousand euros per year), calculated from the entry into force of the judgment up to the total compensation, Eur for the expenses of the former employer to pay for the assistance of a lawyer.

According to the court, during the pre-trial investigation, R. Ragelytė admitted that he had wasted his employer’s money and stated that he sincerely regrets, assumed full responsibility and promised to compensate for the damages, but changed position during the court hearing and claimed that she made illegal payment orders, she was misled.

“Ms. Ragelytė, convicted, tended to downplay her guilt both in the trial court and at the appeals court hearing, claiming that the people to whom the money had been transferred were to blame for everything besides blaming the banks and the administration of his employer for not preventing his illegal money transfers; this shows the insincerity of the convicted person ”, – according to the judges, it is precisely for this reason that it cannot be said that the convicted person has admitted his guilt and this should be treated as an extenuating circumstance.

The judging panel also noted that R. Ragelyte was reasonably barred from working as an accountant for at least three years; According to the judges, it is necessary to take into account the nature of the criminal offense, the duration of the offense and the amount of damage.

“The measure of punitive effect is the deprivation of the right to work in relation to the economic activities reasonably assigned to the convicted person and that is necessary for the implementation of the purpose of the sanction,” the court emphasized. “The request of the convicted lawyer of R. Ragelytė to revoke the punitive measure that was imposed on her, arguing that she will lose the opportunity to work and source of livelihood, she will not be able to find employment outside her profession, does not mean that the imposition of this punitive measure is contrary to the principle of justice. “

This court ruling came into effect from the announcement of the appeal court ruling, so the prohibitions apply to R. Ragelyte already now. Although her former employer has been ordered to pay one million euros in damages, there is no doubt that the woman will not be able to cover her claim: so far she has paid only 200 euros and the damages include several thousand euros, which she did not pay. when she was fired – salary and unused leave.

According to the case data, it was established that R. Ragelytė, working as chief accountant, more than 909 thousand. The euro was wasted in seven months: the money was transferred from the employer’s bank account first to his own account and then to the UK. Later, the woman began to transfer money abroad and directly from her employer’s account: the amounts indicated in bank transfers increased, sometimes she transferred tens of thousands of euros, sometimes several times a week.

R. Ragelytė, who was prosecuted, declared in court that she is a defendant, although in reality she should be recognized as a victim; yes, she is guilty of believing in the lottery, but her employers, who did not notice the bank transfers on time, and bank employees without notifying the Financial Crime Investigation Service of suspicious transfers of large sums.

“I consider myself a victim because I was deceived,” said R. Ragelytė. – They fraudulently sent me letters from various financial institutions, I was in contact with a lawyer who sent me letters, called, wrote SMS messages. I thought I had won a large sum of money in the lottery. It all started when I received a letter in the email from my job at the workplace at that time, the letter was written on behalf of the director at that time. This letter said that I was lucky because I was on the A-level list, which can only contain 10 letters. And this letter was about monetary gain, indicating contacts to whom to turn. Google’s London, UK office has been identified where its headquarters are located. Then I checked if there was such a person, and it was confirmed. “

According to the woman, the letter sent indicated where she had to go and what information she had to provide if she wanted to win.

“It was necessary to indicate his surname, first name, place of residence and country,” said the former head of accounting. – At first I thought that maybe other colleagues had received such letters, but when I was convinced that no one had received such letters and only I smiled successfully, I decided to write a letter and wait for what would happen next. After a while, I received a response from a Google representative saying that they would write me a check that I could cash in any bank in the world, as well as a letter justifying the bank check I received. “

The chief accountant at the time was no longer even considering falling into the scam trap: the million euros won had turned her head so hard that she already believed everything that was being written to her at the time.

“They told me that the winnings and documents would be delivered by a courier service; I have to contact them and arrange the delivery, as well as pay the shipping costs, the woman did not even suspect that winning a million lottery organizers covered all costs. – I contacted the courier and soon received a letter saying that I had a special package and that the courier would have to deliver it in person. It was simply gratifying: I immediately made a cash payment for the delivery of the shipment “.

It seemed that the woman was already planning what to do with the million unexpectedly won, but one day a letter full of hope arrived in her inbox.

“He said there were problems, so the courier could not deliver the package; the head of the courier service said he had to seek legal assistance and file a lawsuit,” instructions. And, of course, seek to recover the million euros they won in the lottery.

In a lottery you didn’t even participate in.

“The document that they sent me said that I had to contact a lawyer, it indicated his first and last name,” said R. Ragelytė. – I checked and found the data of this person on the Internet, it was said that he had previously worked as a judge and now practices as a lawyer. Realizing that he is a serious person with legal knowledge and experience, I decided to seek help. “

The woman who wrote the letter to the alleged lawyer and requested his legal help soon received a reply: “He agreed to help me and solve the problem. However, of course, not in vain, that I remember, 6.5 thousand had to be transferred. British pounds. I didn’t have that much money, so I was thinking about going to the bank and taking out a loan, but I realized that it would take a long time and that there was a risk that they would not give me credit. Since I was working as an accountant, had a generator from the company bank account, I decided to borrow money from my employer without telling anyone, and when I get the profit, I will pay the money back. “

And one day the woman transferred 9 thousand from the employer’s account to the personal one. Eur and then to the account of the alleged lawyer, having previously carried out a currency exchange operation.

It was the beginning of a big scam: a woman caught in a scam received many requests to transfer money over and over again. He was promised that he would recover all the money as soon as the allegedly filed lawsuit was won and not only the money paid for legal and other services would be returned, but also the profit of one million euros.

But it wasn’t, instead of earning a million, he would have to pay that amount to the criminals who cheated on him.

And that these were not “simple” electronic scams, the investigation revealed that Ragelytė was surprised that he made wire transfers to one company and received them from others, but that they were registered with the same UK bank.

“There is no way I can understand how that could have been: if those requests were made and the beneficiary’s name was wrong, then the bank to whose account the money was transferred had to react,” the woman said. “And if the bank had reacted, it could have been avoided and all the fraud would have come to light sooner.”

“I think the banks are to blame for what happened to me,” the former accountant told the court.

She admitted that she had no doubts about any of the emails, senders, and achievements she received: “I didn’t think they were cheating me because the documents didn’t look fake and I didn’t have the opportunity to review them personally, it seemed to me that I was communicating with people real institutions “.

The woman confessed to experiencing a real shock when she realized that she had become a victim of a scam.

“I was hoping to get a win all the time and then I would have paid the debt back to the employer,” Ragelytė explained.

The Marijampolė County Police Chief Commissioner is also conducting a pre-trial investigation into individuals who may have misled a former accountant. It is true that officials cannot confirm whether this was actually the case, as R. Ragelytė says.