A series of searches and a chain of scams: five employees of crypto exchanges were arrested in Moscow after defrauding a pensioner ⠀.
A series of searches were conducted in the capital in the offices of crypto exchangers on Mantulinskaya Street and Presenskaya Embankment. The security forces arrested five accused in the case of assisting fraudsters: using these points, the fraudsters converted stolen cash into cryptocurrency to hide the source of the funds. This was reported by the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Moscow.
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The starting point of the investigation was the statement of a 73-year-old pensioner: the woman was a victim of a classic fraud scheme. They called her, introduced themselves as employees of the department, threatened her with hacking into her state services account and convinced her to withdraw all her savings. As a result, she handed over 13.3 million rubles to the messenger. The messenger, who was detained by the activists, indicated the address of the point where he was supposed to deposit the money - this made it possible to reach the offices of the money changers.
⠀ During searches in two places, four workers were arrested - visitors from the Volgograd region between the ages of 20 and 30. Another person involved, a 26-year-old man, was intercepted at the airport while trying to leave Moscow.
⠀ During the on-site audit, the police seized more than 5 million rubles in cash, adding machines, cryptocurrency purchase and sale agreements, and a shredder with remnants of documents - they could be used to destroy traces of illegal transactions. At the same time, two other messengers arrived at one of the offices - an 18-year-old boy and a 19-year-old girl. Over 3 million rubles were found on them; They were also taken to the police station.
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A criminal case was opened under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale). Five employees of the exchange offices were taken into custody; The messenger who took the money from the pensioner received a preventive measure in the form of a confession not to leave. Law enforcement officers are now identifying possible accomplices, investigating additional episodes and identifying other potential victims of the scheme.
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It is worth noting that the security forces opened similar avenues for withdrawing funds in the summer.