Millions were embezzled: the cyber police "visited" members of a criminal organization (VIDEO).

Law enforcement agencies identified nine people who were members of a group that used fraud to take possession of people's virtual assets. These individuals were charged, as well as preventive measures were established. They can get up to 12 years in prison.

The capital's cyber police, together with investigators of the Investigative Department of the Darnytskyi Police Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv, under the procedural guidance of the Darnytskyi District Prosecutor's Office of Kyiv, detected and stopped the activities of a criminal organization whose members fraudulently misappropriated citizens' funds.

The illegal activity was organized by two residents of Kyiv region, who involved seven more residents of Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia and Rivne regions in illegal activities. Most of the defendants have known each other since childhood.

Law enforcement officers found out that the suspects distributed ads through Telegram channels for making money on cryptocurrency and subsequently corresponded with potential victims.

For this purpose, the offenders set up two call centers in Kyiv region. The operators persuaded the victims to transfer their own virtual assets to crypto wallets created in advance by the attackers.

In order to gain the trust of citizens and encourage them to transfer more significant amounts, the attackers initially returned the "investments" with a small surplus, but later embezzled their savings and stopped communicating.

The police, together with the employees of the operational service, with the support of the special unit of the Air Defense Department No. 1 of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv, the TOR, conducted 28 searches at the addresses of residence and in the cars of the suspects. Dozens of mobile phones, computer equipment, 36 bank cards, almost two hundred SIM cards of mobile operators, and more than 54 thousand dollars were seized. As well as two cars, the market value of each of which can be 20-25 thousand dollars. The petition for the seizure of funds and vehicles was sent to the court.

Nine offenders were detained by investigators in accordance with Art. 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.

Investigators served the defendants a notice of suspicion under Parts 1, 2 of Art. 255 (Creation, management, participation in a criminal organization), Part 4 Art. 28, Part 5 Art. 190 (Fraud) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Four of them were remanded in custody, and five more suspects were placed under house arrest. The offenders face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.