July 19, 2025, 8:42 p.m.
(Photo: Judiciary)
The Darnytsia District Court of Kyiv has imposed a pre-trial restraint in the form of detention with an alternative bail of UAH 4.5 million on a man believed to be the coordinator of a criminal group in Odesa, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Dnipro regions.
According to the court ruling, the group was organized by a lawyer from Dnipro to assist men in smuggling across the state border by producing forged documents.
In particular, members of the group forged certificates from the Odesa Medical and Social Expert Commission and received money for this. The services of the organized group members were also used by servicemen who were mobilized during martial law in order to get out of military service.
At various times, at least eight other people were involved in this group, in addition to its leader. The client paid USD 7 thousand to an unidentified crypto wallet and received the finished documents by mail.
According to the case file, the members of the organized group thus obtained at least USD 420 thousand and committed at least 60 criminal offenses.
Meanwhile, recently, during a special operation in Odesa, four officials of the local customs department for combating smuggling were exposed for extorting money from entrepreneurs for the unimpeded export of goods from Ukraine. The group was headed by the current Deputy Director of the Department of International Cooperation of the State Customs Service of Ukraine.
He involved a group of officials of the NGO International Diplomatic Mission "Organization for Security of the Community of Europe" who, under the guise of the OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine, set up a mechanism for receiving remuneration for issuing pseudo-OCSCE certificates to Ukrainian citizens.
Кирило Бойко