It is reported on lviv.gp.gov.ua that a 63-year-old resident of Lviv Region is suspected of fraud amounting to over 2 million UAH. According to the investigation, from March to August last year, he misled the relatives of a missing soldier, promising to help with the return of the body.
The man met the relative of the missing person at the funeral of another soldier, where he began to talk about his alleged connections in the special services and the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. He claimed that thanks to his assistance, the body of the soldier, at whose funeral they met, was returned.
The suspect offered his help to the family in finding and returning the missing person’s body. The relatives agreed, and the man began demanding money for alleged current expenses related to the search. In reality, he remained in the territory of the Lviv Region and had no intention of fulfilling his promise.
Over five months, he received more than 2 million 110 thousand UAH from the relative. When the relative began demanding more information, the suspect claimed that the missing person was alive and was in a detention center in Voronezh, Russia. The deception was uncovered after contacting the Coordination Headquarters, which refuted this information.
After this, the soldier’s brother contacted law enforcement. Under the procedural guidance of the Halytskyi District Prosecutor’s Office of Lviv, law enforcement officers informed the Lviv Region resident of the suspicion of fraud on a particularly large scale (part 5 of article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The pre-trial investigation is conducted by Lviv District Police Department No. 1, and the operational support is provided by the Cybercrime Counteraction Department in the Lviv Region.
According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is considered innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a legal manner and established by a court’s guilty verdict.