The SSU jointly with the SBI have detained two scammers who tried to defraud a candidate for the post of a rector of a higher education institution in Vinnytsia.

For USD 50,000, they promised to help the candidate with her appointment to a senior position at the university. During the conversation with the victim, the individuals posed as officials of ‘anti-corruption bodies’.

To ‘solve the issue’, the fraudsters assured they would ‘involve their connections on higher level’.

The law enforcement detained one of the suspects when he received a part of the bribe, USD 20,000. His accomplice was also apprehended.

During the transaction, one of the men introduced himself as the head of the so-called ‘separate unit of the Anti-corruption committee in Vinnytsia region’. The other was the head of a fictitious ‘Anti-corruption committee under the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine’.

However, these persons are in no way related to any anti-corruption institutions or the Ukrainian parliament.

The detainees have been notified of suspicion under two Articles of the CCU:

• 190.4 (fraud on an especially large scale or by an organized group);
• 27.4, 369.3 (offering, promising or giving an unlawful benefit to a public official).

The suspects are in custody, facing up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.

The SSU Vinnytsia Office carried out the operation jointly with the State Bureau of Investigations under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor’s Office.