The case against the fraudster who defrauded Vitebsk residents of 1.3 billion rubles has been sent to court

The Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus for the Vitebsk region has completed the investigation of a criminal case initiated against a 63-year-old resident of Vitebsk, who is accused of committing fraud on a particularly large scale.

As previously reported, on August 27, 2014, as a result of operational-search activities carried out by officers of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a woman was detained while receiving money in the amount of 40 million Belarusian rubles. She presented herself as an employee of the Social Protection Fund of the Population and offered housing assistance to those in need, promising to build apartments for 10 percent of their cost.

During the investigation, it was established that the accused, for five years, had been posing as an official whose competence allegedly included considering issues of apartment allocation. The woman offered assistance in housing construction on favorable terms, finishing works in apartments, and processing necessary documents. Simultaneously, she offered fictitious assistance to some victims, involving the transfer of funds as bribes to officials whose competence included considering issues of dormitory room allocation in the regional center.

For the obligations undertaken, which she did not intend to fulfill in advance, the accused took money from the victims. The amounts ranged from 4 to 170 million Belarusian rubles. The total damage caused by the criminal activity amounted to over 1 billion Belarusian rubles.

Currently, the preliminary investigation is complete. The full range of necessary investigative actions has been carried out in the criminal case: numerous witnesses and victims have been interrogated, the accused's property worth over 1.3 billion Belarusian rubles has been seized, searches and face-to-face interrogations have been conducted.

The actions of the accused have been finally qualified by the investigation under the elements of crimes provided for by Part 1 of Article 14, Part 4 of Article 209 (attempted fraud committed repeatedly on a particularly large scale), Part 5 of Article 16, Part 2 of Article 431 (incitement to give a bribe committed repeatedly on a large scale) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus.

During the investigation, special attention was paid to studying the personality of the accused. The woman had previously been repeatedly convicted for committing similar crimes, easily gained the trust of citizens and won over the victims. More than 30 people of various social statuses and ages suffered from the criminal actions of the accused.

The preventive measure applied to the accused has not been changed. From the moment of detention to the present time, the accused has been kept in custody.

The criminal case has been sent to court.

Official representative of the Investigative Committee of the Vitebsk Region

Inna Gorbacheva