The Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office, together with the Kyiv District Prosecutor's Office of Odesa, has sent an indictment to the court regarding five members of an organized criminal group who extorted money from people under fabricated pretenses.

During the investigation, it was established that a 29-year-old resident of Sumy, having connections in the criminal environment, created a stable group with a clear division of roles. The accomplices operated in Odesa and Kyiv, covering their criminal activities with "assistance" in settling debt obligations.

In reality, they were looking for wealthy citizens, obtaining personal information about them, and demanding payment of non-existent debts – ranging from 5 to 50 thousand US dollars. In case of refusal to hand over the money, they threatened people with violence, followed them, beat them, and seized their property.

In one of the episodes, members of the criminal group illegally detained a 23-year-old man. They demanded the transfer of 50 thousand dollars and seized his BMW M5 car worth over 2.2 million UAH.

Law enforcement officers detained those involved in the crimes in April of this year during another extortion attempt. During searches of two group members, cold weapons without permits were seized.

Law enforcement agencies documented five episodes of extortion, illegal deprivation of liberty, vehicle seizure, and carrying cold weapons (Part 4 of Article 189, Part 3 of Article 289, Part 3 of Article 146, Part 2 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The total amount of damage inflicted on the victims is nearly 2.4 million hryvnias. 

At the request of the prosecutor's office, the five suspects are in custody.

Materials regarding the organizer of the scheme have been separated into a separate proceeding. He has been declared wanted.  

The pre-trial investigation is being conducted by the Organized Crime Unit No. 1 of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Odesa region, with operational support from the Security Service of Ukraine in the Odesa region.

Note: According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a court verdict.