An organized crime group was exposed in Kyiv that helped men who were conscripted to the military to illegally travel abroad by registering fictitious paternity. For $3,000, the criminals offered to become "parents of many children," looking for low-income women with children.
The investigation found that the group members found women with young children and offered them a monetary reward for recognizing a stranger as the father of their child. This gave the men the right to cross the state border without hindrance, since fathers of many children are given a deferment from mobilization.
The perpetrators used connections in one of the district courts in the Odessa region to secure the necessary court decision recognizing fictitious paternity. The men later used this decision to avoid mobilization and departure from Ukraine.
For his services, the organizer of the scheme received $3,000 from conscripts, of which the children's mother received only $500.
The Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office has sent an indictment against the members of the criminal group to court. The defendants will be tried under Part 2 of Article 15, Part 3 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (attempted crime, illegal smuggling of persons across the state border of Ukraine, committed by an organized group). They face a sentence of imprisonment for a term of up to nine years with confiscation of property.
