Members of an organized fraud group who, under the guise of volunteers, appropriated 9 apartments in the capital and Kyiv region will appear in court in Kyiv, Kyiv police reported.
According to law enforcement officials, the organizer of the scheme was a 48-year-old resident of the capital, who involved five more people aged 37 to 53, including three women and two men, in criminal activity.
The perpetrators acted according to a pre-planned scheme: they sought out socially vulnerable individuals who were in difficult life circumstances and had real estate. To gain the victims' trust, the perpetrators presented themselves as volunteers, brought food and necessary items, creating the illusion of care.
They then offered "assistance" in selling apartments to supposedly purchase smaller homes, promising additional funds for the owners' needs. In reality, the fraudsters took possession of title documents and registered ownership rights for fictitious persons or for themselves, leaving the real owners homeless.
As a result of these actions, the defendants illegally appropriated nine apartments for a total amount of about 14 million hryvnias. It was established that they tried to take possession of five more apartments, but law enforcement officers thwarted these attempts. Currently, the illegally appropriated property has been seized.
The organizer and his accomplices face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
