Fraudsters posing as territorial recruitment center staff seized a Kyiv resident’s real estate worth almost 10 million

Two men will stand trial in Kyiv for defrauding a 58-year-old local resident into transferring all his real estate, worth more than 9.8 million hryvnias, to strangers.

This was reported by the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.

According to the investigation, the accused — a 45-year-old resident of Kyiv Oblast and a 38-year-old Kyiv resident — exploited the trust of a lonely man and staged his mobilization. One of the fraudsters introduced himself as a territorial recruitment center employee, ordered the man into a car and claimed he was wanted.

After that, the second accused, who had long posed as the victim’s friend, allegedly arranged his release. The perpetrators then convinced the Kyiv resident that because of the wanted status, the recruitment center could confiscate all his property. On this pretext, they proposed transferring the real estate to other people, assuring him it would later be returned to its owner.

First, the man concluded a sale and purchase agreement for a land plot and a private house in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka. The money received from the buyer he immediately handed over to one of the accused at his instruction. Some time later, the victim was also persuaded to gift an apartment in Kyiv to an unrelated woman.

As a result, the man lost all the real estate he owned. According to expert assessment, the total value of the land plot, private house and apartment exceeds 9.8 million hryvnias.

All the real estate properties have been seized. In addition, the real estate of one of the accused has been seized to secure possible compensation for the damage caused to the victim.

The indictment against the two men has been sent to court. Their actions are qualified as fraud — taking possession of another’s property through abuse of trust, committed repeatedly, by prior conspiracy of a group of persons, under martial law and on an especially large scale (Part 5 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

We previously reported that a man posing as an SBU employee extorted more than 128,000 dollars and 400,000 hryvnias from a 71-year-old People’s Artist of Ukraine. Recall that an Odesa military commissar demanded money to remove someone from the wanted list and for reservation, threatening to send him to the front line.