News

In St. Petersburg, members of an organized criminal group charged for swindling with real estate property of deceased citizens

The St. Petersburg Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia pressed charges against a district police officer of Police Department 26 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Krasnogvardeysky district of St. Petersburg, his brother, and their two accomplices, depending on the role of each, for committing the crimes provided for by paragraph A of Part 3 of Article 158, Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code (theft, fraud); a measure of restraint has been chosen. 

According to investigators, the accused in St. Petersburg created a stable organized criminal group for the purpose of committing fraud with respect to the property of deceased citizens. For example, in 2018, with information that a deceased local resident, who had left no heirs, owned an apartment located on Granitnaya Street, which was an escheat and should have been transferred to the Russian Federation represented by the subject, St. Petersburg, they submitted knowingly false documents to state institutions, on the basis of which the ownership rights were registered. As a result, the accomplices fraudulently acquired the right and the actual ability to dispose of the apartment, and then sold it in favor of third parties, causing property damage to St. Petersburg in the amount of not less than 3 million 350 thousand rubles, and stole property from there.

In the course of the searches, investigators working together with officers of the regional offices of the Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, who provided operational support, discovered and seized large quantities of stolen property from the apartments, including orders, medals, hunting weapons and ammunition, as well as documents of interest to the investigation.

At present, a complex of measures aimed at bringing to criminal responsibility the accomplices of the accused, as well as at establishing the involvement of members of the organized criminal group to committing of about 50 episodes of swindling with property of deceased citizens, is being carried out.

The criminal investigation is ongoing.