The Security Service of Ukraine, together with law enforcement agencies from Latvia and Lithuania, conducted a large-scale special operation against the organizers of a fraudulent scheme involving pseudo-investments in cryptocurrencies aimed at citizens of the European Union.
This is reported by Finway
“In Dnipro, the organizer and 10 participants of the scheme with call centers were detained.”
Complex Structure of the Fraud Scheme
According to the investigation, the criminal group created four call centers, whose operators called residents of the EU and offered to invest money in supposedly profitable crypto projects. Victims were shown fake interfaces of cryptocurrency exchanges with fictitious asset growth dynamics and imaginary profits. All this data was completely controlled by the fraudsters and had no relation to real financial operations.
At the initial stage, clients were offered to make small deposits, after which they were shown fictitious “dividends” to encourage them to invest larger amounts. When the investment volumes reached significant sizes, the perpetrators ceased communication, blocked contacts, and the funds were transferred to cryptocurrency wallets controlled by the scheme’s participants.
Searches, Seizures, and Criminal Proceedings
Law enforcement conducted about 40 searches in premises used by the suspects. During the investigative actions, mobile phones, computer equipment, and cash amounting to approximately 21 million hryvnias equivalent were seized. Over the year of the criminal group’s activity, investigators estimate that the organizers earned at least 1.2 million US dollars in illegal income.
The detained individuals have already been informed of suspicion under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, in particular:
- Parts 1, 2 of Article 255 — creation and leadership of a criminal organization, as well as participation in it;
- Parts 4, 5 of Article 190 — fraud in especially large amounts using electronic computing technology;
- Part 3 of Article 209 — legalization of property obtained by criminal means, in especially large amounts.
The suspects face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property. The investigation is ongoing.