News

The investigating bodies of the Russia’s Investigative Committee for the Republic of Komi have finished investigating a criminal case against five residents of the town of Syktyvkar. Depending on the role of each one they are charged with fraud committed by an organized group on a large scale or an attempt to commit the crime (article 159 of the RF Penal Code). In addition, one of the group’s leaders is charged with involving a minor in the criminal group and a serious crime (part 4 of article 150), another defendant is accused of illegal purchasing and storage of a large amount of drugs without the purpose of selling it.

According to investigators, in the period between August 2013 and February 2014, the defendants who at the moment of committing crimes were 21-23 years of age acted as an organized group, found minors studying in different educational facilities and who had the status of orphans or children deprived of parental care, deceived them and stole money paid to them by the state as allowance to their bank accounts. In seven cases the accused failed to finish their crimes as either the victims guessed about their criminal intentions or their illegal actions were stopped by a third party or there was no money on the victim’s bank account.

There 19 victims, who suffered pecuniary damage of over 2.5 million rubles overall. One of the victims, a 17-year-old girl, from whom the accused had stolen over 340 thousand rubles, later was involved in the criminal activity and took part in stealing money from other victims (criminal case against her has been severed in a separate proceeding).

According to their scheme the defendants offered teenagers to make some money by opening a bank account with certain functions, which the accomplices later were able to use for their own purposes. Five of the defendants are former criminals, two – had served terms in jail and from jail used phones to direct the process.

The criminal case with the approved indictment will soon be sent to court to be considered on the merits.

Following the probe ordinances have been issued for the Komi Republic Ministry of Education, Main Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service and Sberbank demanding to eliminate circumstances that enabled the crimes.