In the case concerning fundraising for SMA treatment, a new allegation has emerged regarding the laundering of over 162 million hryvnias
Law enforcement officials have announced a new charge against a Lviv resident who organised a public fundraising campaign for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy. According to the investigation, he is suspected of laundering assets obtained through criminal means.
Investigators believe that the funds people transferred for his treatment passed through a complex system of financial transactions. According to the police, the money was transferred via the cryptocurrency services Binance and WhiteBIT, distributed across more than 1,170 bank cards belonging to other individuals, converted into the USDT cryptocurrency and moved between numerous crypto wallets.
According to the investigation, this scheme was designed to make it more difficult to trace the origin of the funds and to conceal their subsequent movements.
Law enforcement officials reported that the total value of the financial transactions under investigation exceeds 162.5 million hryvnias. These circumstances, according to the investigation, have been confirmed by the findings of a forensic examination.
New victims were also identified during the investigation. Whilst there were 34 victims at the time the first suspicion was reported, this number has now risen to 96. At the same time, the amount of established losses has increased from 1.3 million UAH to over 2 million UAH.
According to law enforcement officials, the suspect is cooperating with the investigation, providing the necessary explanations and fully admitting his guilt in the alleged offences.
The pre-trial investigation into the fraud and money laundering offences, committed on an especially large scale, has been completed. Once the case file has been disclosed to the defence, the indictment is due to be submitted to the court.
At the same time, law enforcement officials noted that, in a separate criminal proceeding, work is ongoing to establish the full trail of the funds, all individuals who may have been involved in the financial transactions, and the actual users of the cryptocurrency wallets through which the money passed.
In addition, other financial transactions not currently covered by the reported allegations are being investigated. Should other individuals involved in this scheme be identified, they will be held accountable in accordance with the law.
