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The Tver Regional Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation finished the criminal investigation into 13 residents of Moscow and Tver Regions. Depending on the role of each, they are accused of committing offenses under Paragraphs A, C, F, J of Part 2 of Article 105, Part 4 of Article 159, Paragraph A of Part 4 of Article 158, Paragraph C of Part 3 of Article 158, Part 5 of Article 33, Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of Russia (murder of persons known by the killer to be helpless state committed by a generally dangerous method with the purpose of concealing another crime or facilitating its commission; swindling on an especially large scale entailing deprivation of a person from housing rights; theft; accessory in swindling).

The investigation established that, from December 2012 to 2016, a Tver Region citizen (the probe into whom was terminated due to his death) had formed a criminal group consisting of persons from his inner social circle and his acquaintances in order to unlawfully enrich himself and receive permanent criminal proceeds; he had been personally assigning goals and tasks, participating in the development of plans of illegal activities and preparation of grave and especially grave offenses, and taking direct part in them, as well as distributing the criminal proceeds.

The main purpose of the criminal community had been crimes against property--swindling by expropriation of property in order to seize the property of another person and to gain proceeds from following fraudulent alienation and theft of money from bank cards of one of the victims. Generally, the target for the criminal community had been single asocial citizens, who had owned apartments in Moscow. The victims were proposed to buy an apartment in Tver Region for a lower cost than the apartment in Moscow and to use the price difference as a profit. The group had acted with especial cruelty and cynicism, killing family members in order to facilitate the commission of the offenses and remove obstacles. After the victims had signed the necessary documents for sale of the apartments, participants of the criminal group had offered lonely Moscow citizens alcohol drinks mixed with a sedative; once the victims had fallen asleep, the perpetrators had murdered them by drowning, burying them alive, or shooting in the cemetery of Tver Region and then thoroughly concealed crime traces by installing fences and crosses from neighbor graves on burial places of the victims.

With the conspiracy, hierarchy, cohesion and strict discipline, the members of the organized criminal community had been operating in the territory of Moscow and Tver regions from 2013 to 2018. Nine persons had become their victims.

The activities of the criminal group were disrupted on March 22, 2018. The crimes were solved due to the scrupulous and purposeful work of an investigator of the Tver Regional Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia, aimed for the detection of past years’ crimes, thorough examination and analysis of suspended probes. Apart from that, the investigation of such crimes became possible due to joint efforts, ensuring unity of actions and mutual assistance with the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

The investigation found that 5 apartments, costing from 4 to 8 million rubles, were fraudulently alienated. The total amount of the stolen property amounted to approximately 30 million rubles.

Earlier, the investigation reported that the probe into one of the members of the group was finished and referred to court.

The investigation gathered enough evidence; therefore, the probe into 13 co-perpetrators with the approved indictment will be sent to the court to be tried on the merits in the near future.

Official spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Russia S. Petrenko

Video of investigative activities (archive) https://youtu.be/pWJOXbGzH_g