Investigators amend charges against seven members of fraudulent call centre network over new episodes

Discovery of new fraud episodes

As part of the investigation into the activities of a network of fraudulent call centres, law enforcement agencies recorded additional cases of illegal appropriation of financial resources belonging to citizens of Lithuania. These circumstances were established thanks to close cooperation between investigators from Ukraine and the Republic of Lithuania. The total amount of damage caused in the three new episodes exceeds 1.3 million hryvnias.

Results of the joint investigation group

As reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General, a joint investigation group comprising Ukrainian and Lithuanian law enforcement officers identified three more episodes of unlawful activity by the network. In these cases, the victims were citizens of Lithuania.

Total amount of damage and number of victims

In total, eight victims have been identified within the current criminal proceedings, including citizens of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Lithuania. The cumulative amount of damage caused to them exceeds 3.7 million hryvnias.

Amendment of the legal qualification of the suspects' actions

After documenting additional circumstances, seven previously identified members of the criminal organisation were notified of the amendment to the previously announced charges and new charges were brought. The actions of the suspects have been qualified under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• Part 1 of Article 255 — establishment of a criminal organisation, leadership of such an organisation or its structural units;
• Part 5 of Article 185 — theft committed on an especially large scale or by an organised group.

Status of the investigation and presumption of innocence

Currently, law enforcement officers are continuing the pre-trial investigation. In accordance with Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, all suspects are considered innocent until their guilt is proven in court and established by a guilty verdict.

Context: previous exposure of the network

It was previously reported that a fraudulent call centre operating out of an apartment was exposed in Kyiv, and charges were brought against 11 members of the group. Employees of the criminal structure called citizens, posing as representatives of banking institutions and convincing their interlocutors that their funds were under threat. Under the pretext of protecting money, the fraudsters obtained confidential information, which they subsequently used to appropriate the victims' funds.

Additionally, three young men were detained in Lviv Oblast, who were charged with the first in Ukraine suspicion of establishing a fraudulent call centre. According to law enforcement data, the group from Stryi used fake female profiles on dating services to gain access to their interlocutors' gadgets and withdraw money from their accounts. The suspects face a penalty of up to 15 years of imprisonment.