19 members of an organized criminal group will be tried in Odesa, which defrauded citizens of Ukraine and foreigners under the guise of an international investment holding.
This was reported by the press service of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
The accused defrauded citizens of Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, the countries of the European Union, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America under the pretext of investing money in the purchase of shares and cryptocurrencies.
The members of the organized group called citizens of different countries and introduced themselves as employees of the investment company. By means of deception, they induced interlocutors to transfer funds under the pretext of investing in cryptocurrency, securities and other assets.
In the premises rented by the group, separate structural units of the criminal organization were created and equipped – “security service”, “refrigerating department” and “team leader department”. Each department had its own functions, staff, its own administrator, instructions for misleading victims and training material. The full-time staff of the call center was up to 80 employees.
The monthly income of the “investment holding” was 150-200 thousand US dollars, of which up to 100 thousand US dollars went to support activities, including 50 thousand US dollars – for salaries. Only the rent of the premises amounted to 10,000 US dollars per month, which the fraudsters changed every 3-4 months for the purpose of conspiracy.
9 victims have been identified, the amount of damage caused to them is more than 5 million hryvnias.
During the authorized searches, computer equipment, media, mobile phones, draft records, scripts of conversations with future victims, etc. were seized.
At the prosecutor’s request, the crypto-wallet, real estate and cars of the defendants were seized.
