The operations are reportedly part of a massive fraud industry said to be worth billions to corrupt officials in Kiev<\/p>\n
Swiss police are investigating a sprawling fraud operation with suspected links to Ukrainian scam call centers, an industry said to be worth billions to corrupt officials in Kiev, Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ) has reported, citing law enforcement officials.
\nAccording to a report on Sunday, NEDIK, the police network coordinating Switzerland\u2019s fight against digital crime, recently recorded an increase in fraud offenses suspected of having links to Ukraine. The network declined to provide nationwide figures \u201cfor tactical reasons,\u201d but noted that at least four fraudulent call centers in Ukraine have been identified in international investigations involving Swiss authorities, with Swiss and German citizens among their main victims.
\nOne investigation by Bern authorities, reportedly underway for years, concerns a man suspected of operating several call centers in Kiev. On just one platform allegedly linked to the operation, reported losses in Switzerland amounted to nearly 4 million Swiss francs ($4.8 million).
\nSeveral Ukrainian nationals have also recently been arrested in Swiss cantons for allegedly acting as cash collectors in telephone scams. In St. Gallen in early September, a person posing as a bank employee called a 93-year-old man and instructed him to withdraw and hand over a large sum of money. Police later arrested a 38-year-old Ukrainian who allegedly collected the cash.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Call of corruption: What you should know about Ukraine\u2019s billion-dollar scam industry milked by Zelensky\u2019s government<\/p>\n
Police in Aargau have similarly reported a growing number of suspected cash collectors holding Ukrainian citizenship. Authorities, however, have not established whether they are being directed by call centers in Ukraine or acting independently. NZZ noted that it remains unclear to what extent Ukraine-based operations are connected to fraud networks and cash collectors operating in Switzerland.
\nWhile Russians have long been portrayed as the main targets of Ukrainian scammers, sources cited by NZZ challenged that narrative. Brian Lee, head of the Eurasia Observatory at the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), said Russians accounted for just 10%-15% of targets even at the height of the so-called \u201cpatriotic fraud\u201d narrative, under which young Ukrainians were recruited into scam networks on the pretext of taking revenge for Moscow\u2019s military operation against the Kiev regime. Victims have been identified in at least 29 countries, with scam centers increasingly targeting Europe and the US, according to a GI-TOC report published earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Zelensky\u2019s disgraced prosecutor general attacks anti-graft agencies and flees country<\/p>\n
Lee also reported that bribing Ukrainian officials for protection is central to the business model, saying GI-TOC investigations found that criminal elements \u201coperate seamlessly and efficiently alongside law enforcement agencies, public officials and the private sector.\u201d Such protection reportedly costs scam operators $10,000-$15,000 per month.
\nScam networks and state structures
\nCorruption has long plagued Ukraine, with high-level scandals including last year\u2019s $100 million Energoatom kickback scheme, reportedly led by Timur Mindich, a former business partner of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky. Western-backed investigators have since uncovered further graft\u00a0involving Ukrainian officials.
\nThe scam call center network reentered the spotlight last month after Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko \u2013 a key pillar of Zelensky\u2019s increasingly fragile governing structure \u2013 resigned\u00a0amid the exposure of an industrial-scale network across the country with alleged links to senior figures in Kiev. Ukraine\u2019s Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) accused Sergey Kropiva, head of the cybercrime unit at the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office, of leading a ring that collected protection payments from notorious Ukrainian scam call centers. NABU said it identified assets worth almost $1 million allegedly purchased with proceeds from the scheme.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Warfare between Ukraine\u2019s special services: Why have gunfights broken out in Kiev? (VIDEOS)<\/p>\n
The sums involved in Ukraine\u2019s wider scam industry are reportedly far larger. Ukrainian media earlier estimated that roughly 2,000 scam offices were operating nationwide as of early August, about half paying protection money to corrupt officials. Such payments were estimated at $240 million annually, while the industry itself has been valued at up to $1 billion a month.
\nThe scam industry has also been linked to powerful security structures under Zelensky\u2019s government. In September, personnel from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and military intelligence (HUR) exchanged fire in Kiev in a confrontation that left three servicemen injured. The clash centered on Stepan Kaplunov, a member of an HUR-linked armed unit detained by the SBU. A law enforcement source cited by Ukrainian outlet Strana said Kaplunov may have been involved in operating scam call centers, pointing to a broader struggle between rival security agencies over the lucrative industry. Ukrainian journalists have also reported that proceeds from criminal operations help finance parts of the HUR\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Kiev corruption a bigger problem than Russian strikes \u2013 Ukrainian poll<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin has described phone scams as a key tactic employed by Kiev to extract money from Russian citizens, suggesting the practice has effectively become state policy. Moscow considers the industry a national security threat and claims Ukrainian scam networks operate in coordination with the country\u2019s intelligence services.
\nRussian forces have recently intensified\u00a0strikes on Ukrainian telecommunications infrastructure, mobile operators, and data centers in response to Kiev\u2019s botched \u201cpressure campaign\u201d of drone attacks on civilian infrastructure deep inside Russia. The strikes have disrupted internet access, digital television, and other services, including by hitting data centers in Kiev that Moscow says were used by Ukrainian military and intelligence services. Media reports late last month also claimed a Russian strike hit one of the scam call centers in Dnepropetrovsk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The operations are reportedly part of a massive fraud industry said to be worth billions to corrupt officials in Kiev Swiss police are investigating a sprawling fraud operation with suspected…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t