In Odesa, a former law enforcement officer was sentenced for a series of scams involving hundreds of thousands

The story of Serhiy Kalinin, a former prosecutor with the Odesa Local Prosecutor’s Office No. 1, began in late 2015. Having gained the trust of his acquaintances, he carried out several fraudulent schemes over the course of several months, promising profitable investments, assistance in resolving issues with law enforcement, and employment in government agencies.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

The first incident involved investments in an alleged furniture manufacturing business. Kalinin convinced a former law enforcement officer he knew to invest $10,000, assuring him that the business generated stable profits and that the money could be quickly returned if necessary. In late 2015, the man handed over the funds without a receipt, as the prosecutor explained that this was an investment, not a loan.

After that, the man did not receive the promised payments. The prosecutor constantly attributed the delays to various reasons and later asked for another $2,000, allegedly for equipment. In total, the man gave him 12,000 dollars. It later turned out that no furniture business existed at all.

The second incident involved seized cargo belonging to the foreign company WPC. Kalinin assured an acquaintance that, thanks to his connections in the prosecutor’s office, he could help lift the seizure and asked for $20,000 in return. In late March 2016, he received the first $10,000, claiming he would pass it on to officials at the prosecutor’s office. The court found that he did not do so and simply embezzled the money.

For several months, he maintained his acquaintance’s trust by talking about alleged negotiations and upcoming meetings. It later turned out that the official he had referred to had no connection whatsoever to this matter. 

The third incident involved job placement. In 2016, Kalinin promised to help an acquaintance get his grandson a job at the prosecutor’s office and, later, at NABU. For this, he received two payments of two thousand dollars each, but the young man was never hired. NABU confirmed that he had never worked at the bureau and had not even submitted an application.

The defendant’s guilt was confirmed by the testimony of victims and witnesses, correspondence, materials from the criminal proceedings, and official information from NABU. The former law enforcement officer did not appear in court, so the case was heard in his absence.

The court found Serhiy Kalinin guilty of large-scale fraud, incitement to provide an unlawful benefit, and receiving an unlawful benefit in exchange for influence. He was sentenced to eight years in prison with confiscation of property; the pretrial detention order was upheld; and the civil claim filed by one of the victims for over 261,000 hryvnias was granted.

Also in June, a verdict was handed down in Odesa against the organizer of a fraudulent scheme that masqueraded as an investment company and promised clients up to 20% profit per month. According to the case file, dozens of people lost hundreds of thousands of hryvnias as a result of the pyramid scheme’s activities.

Анна Бальчінос