SBU exposed and stopped fraudsters

SBU exposed and stopped fraudsters who stole almost UAH 100 million from the accounts of 4,000 Mariupol residents using data stolen from the branch records of captured Bank branches in Mariupol. Records that also included those who died or were forcibly deported to the Russian Federation and held savings in financial institutions in the territory controlled by Ukraine.

The criminal group came from temporarily occupied Donetsk, and operated under the coordination and organisation of the Russian special services. Its leader is a close associate of the terrorist Pushilin.

Criminals would contact Ukrainian banks by phone using special call routing equipment and allegedly on behalf of account holders and would gain access to a customer's online banking account.

In order to hide the traces of the crime, stolen money was coverted into cryptocurrency.