In the criminal proceedings concerning the collection of funds for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a Lviv resident who organised a public fundraiser has been served with a new suspicion notice. It concerns the laundering of assets obtained by criminal means.
According to the investigation, the money people transferred for treatment was subsequently routed through a complex system of financial transactions. In particular, it was channelled through the cryptocurrency services Binance and WhiteBIT, distributed across more than 1,170 bank cards belonging to other individuals, converted into the USDT cryptocurrency and moved between numerous crypto wallets. This, according to investigators, was intended to make it more difficult to trace the origin of the funds and to conceal their further movement.
The total volume of the examined financial transactions linked to these operations exceeds UAH 162.5 million. These circumstances have been confirmed by a forensic expert report.
The investigation has identified new victims. While at the time of the initial suspicion notice there were 34 victims, there are now 96 people. The amount of established losses has increased from UAH 1.3 million to more than UAH 2 million. According to the investigation, the suspect is cooperating with investigators, providing the necessary explanations and fully admitting his guilt in the offences imputed to him.
The pre-trial investigation into fraud and money laundering committed on an especially large scale has been completed. Once the case file is disclosed to the defence, the indictment is to be referred to court. A separate criminal proceeding is ongoing: law enforcement officers are continuing to establish the full route of the funds, all possible participants in the financial transactions and the actual users of the cryptocurrency wallets through which the money passed, as well as examining other financial operations not yet covered by the existing suspicion notices.