Deferral due to care responsibilities: married couple of lawyers and district administration employee have been detained in capital. PHOTOS
The head of a legal firm and his wife were offering a scheme whereby clients could obtain a deferment from military service and the opportunity to travel abroad by arranging documents to care for a close relative.
The couple claimed they would "arrange" all the necessary paperwork for the client to obtain "guardian" status, reports Censor.NET.
Details
The accomplices enlisted an employee of the social and veterans’ policy department of one of the capital’s district state administrations to assist with their "business". She was responsible for the proper preparation of the document certifying that a person was providing constant care.
The fraudsters’ services were in high demand among men liable for military service. They worked with clients in an office located in the city centre. Work began only after the signing of a contract specifying the amount of remuneration, the payment procedure, bank details and other conditions.
To ensure clients could pass through checkpoints and move around the city unhindered, the organisers of the scheme provided them with fake military summonses. They also asked clients to draw up notarised powers of attorney so that they could represent their interests in government offices. An individual approach was taken with each client.
In one instance, the accomplices initially offered the client, for 8,000 dollars, to act as a guardian for his father; however, upon learning that the father had long since passed away, they altered their plan. This involved a sham marriage to an acquaintance, for whom the accomplices would fabricate a fake mental illness.
Afterwards, the perpetrators submitted all the documents to the district state administration, providing a random residential address within the district’s administrative territory. There, their accomplice, without proper verification or actually visiting the address, compiled and submitted the guardianship documents.
Operatives from the National Police’s Internal Security Department and investigators from the Obolon Police Department in Kyiv carried out over 10 authorised searches at the suspects’ premises. During the operations, they discovered and seized around a thousand documents issued in various people’s names, powers of attorney, document templates (including those with the necessary signatures), contracts with ‘clients’, draft notes, stamps, cash and other evidence of unlawful activity.
All participants in the scheme have now been notified of the charges against them. For abuse of influence committed by a group of individuals acting in collusion, the perpetrators face up to 8 years’ imprisonment.
