Five suspected of apartment fraud in Kyiv and Ivano-Frankivsk
Law enforcement officers in Kyiv have exposed an organised criminal group that illegally seized properties in the capital and Ivano-Frankivsk.
The Kyiv police reported this, according to Censor.NET.
Scheme involving apartments belonging to deceased and absent owners
According to the investigation, the group was organised by a 45-year-old Kyiv resident. He recruited four accomplices from the Kyiv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, including a pensioner.
The suspects identified homes whose owners had died or gone abroad after the start of the full-scale invasion. They then forged passports by inserting their own photographs and approached notaries to have the properties transferred into their names.
In this way, the group seized an apartment in Ivano-Frankivsk that was due to pass into municipal ownership following its owner’s death. They also appropriated a home in Kyiv’s Podilskyi district whose owner is abroad. In addition, the suspects attempted to transfer a share in another apartment in the capital into their names.
"The total losses caused by the suspects’ actions exceed UAH 2.6 million," law enforcement officials said.
Charges and penalties facing group members
Investigators and operatives, under the procedural supervision of prosecutors, notified all members of the group that they were suspected of committing criminal offences.
They are suspected of fraud on a particularly large scale committed by an organised group, as well as forging and using official documents.
The suspects face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property. The alleged organiser has already been remanded in custody pending the pre-trial investigation.
- It was previously reported that a fraudster accused of swindling a People’s Artist of Ukraine out of more than UAH 6 million would stand trial in Kyiv.
