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The National Police worked on the scammers together with colleagues from Germany. Photo: Facebook / gupolice.kr
The National Police of Ukraine and the General Prosecutor’s Office, together with German colleagues, uncovered an international fraudulent scheme with a monthly turnover of 10 million euros. Citizens of Ukraine participate in the organization of the plan.
Most of the victims are residents of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, who were lured out of money, apparently to invest in profitable assets.
The Department of Strategic Investigations of the National Police spoke about the essence of the scheme.
As noted by law enforcement officers, along with colleagues from Germany, they documented the criminal activities of a group that organized a large-scale international scam. In this regard, criminal proceedings were initiated in Ukraine on the basis of fraud and legalization (laundering) of assets obtained by criminal means (part 4 of article 190, part 3 of article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
As part of the investigation, the Ukrainian police discovered that Ukrainian citizens participated in the organization of the scheme, who managed the work of specially created sites, withdrew funds through controlled commercial entities, and legalized them on the territory of Ukraine by purchasing expensive real estate and automobiles, as well as investing in various commercial projects.
In order to get hold of other people’s money, scammers specially created web resources with the help of which they carried out the sale and purchase of various assets: bank metals, coins and cryptocurrencies, securities, etc. They promised the victims huge income from such operations. To mislead investors, using the sites’ software interface, transactions were simulated for the sale and purchase of these assets and a fictitious growth of 100 or more times in the earnings of the invested funds.
After filing withdrawal requests, victims were called by specially created call center employees, introduced themselves as trading platform agents and demanded that an additional 15% of the amount of earnings received be paid in the form of a service fee. . After payment, the investors’ accounts were blocked and the plan organizers appropriated the allocated funds.
Most of the victims of scammers are citizens of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In April, European law enforcement agencies closed call centers in Serbia and Bulgaria and detained nine people.
Investor funds paid through such sites were also found to be credited to the accounts of affiliate organizers of companies in the UK, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia and other countries for further legalization.
According to preliminary data, the monthly billing of the fraudulent scheme ranged between eight and ten million euros.
On December 18, law enforcement officers conducted searches at the defendants’ place of residence and offices. More than a million dollars in cash, raw banknotes, documents of offshore companies through which funds were withdrawn, computer equipment and other elements that confirm the criminal activities of the people involved in the case were seized.
Now the fraudsters’ real and personal property has been seized for a total value of more than 50 million euros, including cars, apartments and luxury houses. The investigation continues.
The National Police did not disclose all the details of the scheme, but it is most likely that it concerns the activities of the Milton Group call center, which in the spring was described in detail by “Strana”.
We also talk about dangerous scammers offering gains on Western stocks.
