Prison-directed scam. Police: “Under the pretext of urgently needing money for a child’s operation, the accused was embezzling money from people”
A “criminal group specialized in committing swindles”, led by an accused from a penitentiary in Moldova, has been broken up by officers of the Investigation Directorate “South” of INI, together with employees of the Cahul Police Inspectorate, under the direction of the Cahul Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the General Inspectorate of Police (IGP), the 30-year-old prisoner is sentenced to 12 years in prison for “drug offences, robbery, theft and swindling”.
“In this case, the accused found victims on social media and, under the pretext of urgently needing money for the operation of his 12-year-old child, extorted money, and two accomplices, his sister and brother-in-law, who were at large, were in charge of receiving the money.
The scheme was uncovered after a 37-year-old woman tipped off police that someone had embezzled €7,000 from her on the pretext that her daughter needed heart surgery. The money was passed on in instalments to the prisoner’s accomplices,” IGP representatives said.
The group has been documented for five months, and recently law enforcement officers carried out several searches in the prison and at the homes of the accomplices at large, where they found and seized mobile phones, bank cards, banknotes and other items “proving their involvement in the crime”.
A criminal case for fraud has been opened in this case, and under current legislation those guilty of such an offence face imprisonment of 1 to 5 years.
