The SSU Cyber Department has exposed a criminal organization engaged in swindling money from Ukrainian businesses. The fraudsters posed as local government officials and asked businessmen to ‘help the Armed Forces of Ukraine’.

According to preliminary estimates, they were able to misappropriate over UAH 3 mln (USD 76,000).

As a result of a series of operations in Kyiv, Dnipro and Kherson region, the SSU and the National Police dismantled the group.

According to the investigation, the criminal scheme was organized by a citizen of a Central Asian state, who is currently in the temporarily occupied part of Luhansk region.

The individual involved nine accomplices from Kyiv oblast and southern Ukraine in the crime.

Using their connections, the members of the group were looking for companies operating under martial law and identified contact details of their managers.

The fraudsters sent them fake letters on behalf of heads of regional, city and district military administrations and asked to transfer from 20,000 to 100,000 UAH to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The amount depended on the business’s turnover.

Then, the swindlers transferred money to their own bank accounts or withdrew it from ATMs in different regions of Ukraine.

During the searches of the suspects’ homes, the SSU found draft records, mobile phones with evidence of the offence and dozens of bank cards used to withdraw the money.

Five participants of the scheme have been detained. The law enforcement agencies are acting to bring to justice other accomplices and the organizer, who is hiding in the temporarily occupied part of eastern Ukraine.

All ten suspects were notified of suspicion under two Articles of the CCU:

• 255.1, 255.2 (creation, management of a criminal community or criminal organization and participation in it);
• 28.4, 190.4 (fraud committed by a criminal organization).

Court is to decide on custody as a measure of restraint.

The SSU carried out the operation and investigative activities jointly with the National Police under the procedural supervision of Odesa Region Prosecutor’s Office.