Fraudster Exposed in Sumy Region for Creating Fake Cryptocurrency Exchange and Defrauding 7.6 Million UAH
In the Sumy region, law enforcement officers detained a 23-year-old resident of Kyiv region who organized a fraudulent scheme for selling non-existent bitcoins. The perpetrator created a fake online platform that mimicked the operation of a real cryptocurrency exchange and defrauded a resident of Sumy region of over 7.6 million hryvnias, equivalent to 160 thousand US dollars.
This is reported by AgroReview
Fraud Scheme and Investigation Details
After creating the pseudo-trading platform, the young fraudster met a potential victim in one of the messaging apps. He offered to arrange the purchase of bitcoins, helped create an electronic wallet, and allegedly sold 0.64 bitcoins for 60 thousand dollars. However, no funds were ever deposited into the wallet.
The victim contacted the “consultant” for explanations. The fraudster assured him that all transactions were temporarily blocked, supposedly due to the cryptocurrency’s involvement in risky operations. The perpetrator convinced the client to purchase another 0.92 bitcoins to unblock the funds, for which the victim spent an additional 100 thousand dollars.
“Realizing that no cryptocurrency had been credited to the electronic wallet, the man contacted his ‘consultant’ again. The suspect convinced him that everything was fine, but temporarily any transactions were blocked because the cryptocurrency they had purchased was involved in risky operations”
Detention and Further Actions by Law Enforcement
The perpetrator was detained while handing over the money with the support of a police special unit. During a sanctioned search, a significant amount of cash, a mobile phone, and a Lexus car were seized from him. The young man was detained in accordance with Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.
Currently, the issue of choosing a preventive measure in the form of detention is being resolved. The young man has been charged with fraud in particularly large amounts committed under martial law, as well as with an attempted commission of this crime (Part 5 of Article 190, Part 2 of Article 15, Part 5 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).