June 26, 2025, 8:24 a.m.
(PHOTO: Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol)
Two foreigners suspected of setting up a channel for selling counterfeit dollars through the occupied Crimea were extradited to Ukraine. Both were detained, and a pre-trial investigation into their involvement in an international currency counterfeiting scheme is underway.
This was reported by the press service of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.
Two Azerbaijani and Georgian citizens suspected of organizing a counterfeit dollar scheme were extradited to Ukraine from Germany. The extradition was achieved by law enforcement officers jointly with the Prosecutor General's Office.
The investigation established that the men acted as part of an organized group that smuggled counterfeit currency through the temporarily occupied Crimea to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
The counterfeit bills were sold through a specially created Telegram channel, delivered in person or by mail. For one such bill, they asked for 50-60% of the face value.
In August 2021, the two were exposed during another sale of counterfeits, after which they were notified of suspicion under Article 199 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - the manufacture, storage, purchase, transportation, importation into Ukraine for use in the sale of goods, or sale of counterfeit money.
In order to avoid punishment, the men went abroad and were put on the international wanted list. After their extradition was approved, they were handed over to Ukrainian law enforcement.
Currently, both suspects have been imposed a pre-trial restraint in the form of detention without the possibility of bail.
In March, the management of the state-owned enterprise Zorya-Mashproekt in Mykolaiv was exposed as having embezzled $71.6 million by transferring the money to the accounts of a foreign company under the guise of payment for fictitious agency services in 2013-2018. To legalize the money, it was transferred to the accounts of other foreign companies controlled by the former executives of the company.
Анна Бальчінос