Former Officials of Construction Company Notified of Suspicion in Large-scale Fraud
❗️Suspects were chosen preventive measures in the form of detention with the right to post bail.
Large-scale Fraud Scheme Involving Seizure of 35 Million UAH
Under the procedural guidance of prosecutors from the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, a former director, former commercial director, and two other employees of a construction and investment company have been notified of suspicion. They are accused of seizing other people’s property through deception and abuse of trust, committed repeatedly, by prior conspiracy of a group of persons, in large and especially large amounts (part 2, 3, 4 of article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
According to the investigation, the suspects implemented a fraudulent scheme involving the seizure of citizens’ funds under the pretense of selling apartments in three multi-apartment residential buildings, which were allegedly to be built in a village in the Pustomyty district, near the city of Lviv.
To achieve this, the director of the construction and investment company, along with his subordinate employees authorized to represent the company’s interests, concluded agreements with the victims for the sale of property rights to the apartments. They also assured the ‘buyers’ that the real estate would be built by June 2023. According to the agreement, the victims paid partial or full costs of the housing.
According to the investigation, to create the impression among potential buyers that there were real intentions to build the houses, the suspects used specially prepared planning schemes for the houses and apartments, conducted the necessary advertising campaign on the Internet, and demonstrated the houses being built by this company nearby.
However, no permits were obtained for the construction of other houses where ‘apartment sales’ were conducted. The suspects had no genuine intentions of carrying out construction. The funds from buyers did not reach the company’s accounts, and the suspects used them at their discretion.
It has been documented that in this way, the subjects seized the victims’ funds amounting to a total of nearly 35 million UAH.
Motions have been sent to the court for selecting preventive measures in the form of detention, as well as for arresting the suspects’ property to ensure compensation for the damage caused.
Pre-trial investigation was carried out by investigators from the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Lviv region with the operational support of the Department of Strategic Investigations in the Lviv region of the National Police of Ukraine.
Note: according to article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until proven guilty in accordance with the law and established by a court conviction.