Fraudsters in Dnipropetrovsk region swindled 600,000 euros from ’investor’ under pretext of investing in metallurgical enterprise, – National Police. PHOTO
In Kryvyi Rih, law enforcement officers have uncovered a fraud scheme in which the perpetrators swindled 600,000 euros from a potential investor by offering to invest the funds in supposedly profitable projects run by a metallurgical company.
According to Censor.NET, this information has been provided by the National Police of Ukraine.
According to the investigation, the perpetrators convinced the victim that they had connections with the management of a metallurgical company and with criminal circles. They offered to invest funds in commercial projects, including coal supplies and the purchase of reinforcing bars at below-market prices, promising substantial profits.
The organiser of the scheme, according to police, has family ties to members of the criminal underworld and is currently in custody in a remand centre in connection with a case involving the misappropriation of 7 million hryvnias from a foreign company.
He enlisted the help of a local entrepreneur, who had a wide circle of contacts among businesspeople, to carry out the scheme. It was this individual who presented himself as the head of a non-resident company, allegedly registered in Bulgaria, and sought out potential investors.
To convince the victim of the deal’s authenticity, the organiser corresponded with him via a messaging app, posing as an assistant to the deputy director-general of a metallurgical enterprise.
Believing in the proposed "investment projects", the man initially transferred 150,000 euros, ostensibly for the supply of coal, and later a further 450,000 euros – for the purchase of reinforcing bars at a price 40 per cent below market value. After the funds were received, the promised projects were never carried out.
On 16 July, law enforcement officers, with the support of special forces from KORD and the Special Purpose Police Regiment, carried out 36 authorised searches at the suspects’ homes and in their vehicles.
During the searches, mobile phones, laptops, bank cards, digital storage devices, documentation, cash, a car, rough notes, as well as ammunition and bushes of plants resembling cannabis were seized.
Two suspects were served with notices of suspicion under Part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (fraud). The Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office is overseeing the proceedings in the case.
