The police have uncovered a pseudo-investment scheme involving Czech citizens as victims
Kyiv’s cyber police, together with investigators from the Main Investigative Directorate of the National Police of Ukraine, under the procedural guidance of the Office of the Prosecutor General and in cooperation with law enforcement agencies in the Czech Republic, have uncovered a group of individuals who were defrauding foreign nationals under the pretence of investment via an onlineplatform. Some of the suspects were operating from within Ukraine.
According to the investigation, the perpetrators set up a call centre in Turkey. The operators posed as employees of an investment platform and, using social engineering techniques, persuaded the victims to invest funds, promising profits from trading in financial instruments.
To mislead people, the suspects used a specially created website that mimicked the operation of an investment platform. The victims were also persuaded to install remote access programmes.
In this way, the criminals gained access to the victims’ computers, online banking accounts and cryptocurrency wallets. The funds were subsequently transferred to accounts under their control, after which accomplices in Ukraine converted them into digital currency and distributed them via a network of crypto wallets.
Cyberpolice identified the individuals involved in the criminal activity, tracked the movement of digital assets, obtained data on the use of remote access programmes, and analysed information provided by Czech law enforcement agencies as part of international cooperation.
With operational support from the TacTeam special unit of the Patrol Police Department, Ukrainian and Czech law enforcement officers carried out 12 authorised searches in Kyiv, the Kyiv region and Lviv at the suspects’ places of residence and in their vehicles.
During the searches, computer equipment, mobile phones, tablets, digital storage media, hardware crypto wallets, bank documents, draft records, over 250,000 hryvnias and 25,000 US dollars in cash, as well as five premium and business-class cars.
The losses inflicted on citizens of the Czech Republic have been estimated at around 1.6 million hryvnias. Furthermore, according to Czech law enforcement agencies, over 140,000 dollars were transferred to the suspects’ controlled crypto wallets. The origin of these assets is currently being established.
Investigators have notified two participants in the scheme that they are under suspicion. The organiser is charged with aiding and abetting fraud on a particularly large scale and the laundering of criminally obtained property. The other suspect is charged with the laundering of criminally obtained property.
They face up to 12 years’ imprisonment.
The pre-trial investigation is ongoing. Law enforcement officials have not ruled out further legal charges against other individuals involved.
