Exchanges in Moscow City, through which Ukrainian call centers laundered money stolen from Russians, forced their victims to work as freelance employees. Footage of the interrogation of the case's participants on August 7 was shown by the Center for Public Relations (TsOS) of the Russian FSB.
One of the men was told by criminals posing as Russian authorities that a power of attorney had allegedly been issued in his name, and to cancel it, he needed to withdraw all money from his accounts. After that, he was convinced that he had to work off his debt as a "freelance employee" and help in detaining the fraudsters.
"I admit my guilt, because for the last three days I acted according to the instructions dictated to me by Rosfinmonitoring and my investigator from the FSB (this is how the fraudsters introduced themselves. — Ed.)," the man said.
Other participants in the case said that at the exchange points they met clients, accepted cash from them, counted the money, and passed the information to their supervisors. After that, the funds were converted into cryptocurrency and sent to specified crypto wallets.
According to one of the detainees, about 30 clients passed through the exchange point per day on average, and the daily turnover could reach $1-2 million. Another participant in the case said that the money turnover could average up to $30 million.
On this day, the TsOS of the FSB reported that security forces had shut down nine channels for withdrawing funds abroad through cryptocurrency and detained more than 20 employees of exchanges in Moscow City, through which Ukrainian call centers laundered money stolen from Russians.
The victims were constantly in touch with the call center, followed step-by-step instructions, and did not realize the nature of their actions. They sold cryptocurrency to citizens, including pensioners, and transferred it to the accounts of Ukrainian curators. To work in the crypto exchanges, young people from Russian regions with insufficient financial literacy, seeking easy money, were recruited remotely.
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