Prosecutors say a 25 year old man arranged clandestine crossings to Moldova for €14,000 and demanded crypto payments, then was detained while collecting funds.
The prosecutor’s office announced suspicion of a 25-year-old native of Zaporizhzhia who, for 14 thousand euros, promised to help a draft-eligible man illegally cross the border of Ukraine toward Moldova.
According to the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office, the subject offered the client assistance in traveling to Moldova via a route outside the border crossing point.
Chronology of the incident and legal qualification
However, all details of the trip were to be disclosed to the man only after payment. For his services, the man demanded 14,000 euros. An additional 1,000 dollars had to be paid directly before the border
– Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office
It is noted that the organizer planned to receive the funds not personally, but to the cryptocurrency wallet he specified, so the transfer took place in the premises of a currency exchange office, where he was detained in accordance with Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.
The police qualified the man’s actions under Part 3 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine as the Organization of illegal transportation of persons through the state border of Ukraine. The sanction for this article is up to 9 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. The subject is currently under round-the-clock house arrest.
Currently, the pre-trial investigation is being conducted by investigators of the Main Department of the National Police of the city of Kyiv with operational support from the Main Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, the Kyiv border checkpoint, and the Department of Internal Security of the National Police, and under the procedural guidance of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.
They note that the intermediary is a resident of the capital.
The investigation continues.