Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs detained three suspects of embezzlement of money in Perm under the pretext of raising funds for the needs of NWO participants. The money was collected in a fake Telegram channel, which was conducted on behalf of the editor-in-chief of the RT TV channel Margarita Simonyan.

The editor-in-chief of RT herself appealed to the police, she also repeatedly wrote on her social networks that she had nothing to do with the resources conducting such fundraising, and urged readers not to believe the scammers. At the time of the arrest of the attackers, the audience of fake channels reached almost 150 thousand people.

"The damage is calculated, the preliminary turnover on bank cards amounted to more than 7 million rubles. The amounts that people paid ranged from 100 to 20 thousand rubles, "the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Tatarstan told RT.

A criminal case of fraud was initiated in Kazan, but police officers from Tatarstan went to Perm to detain them, where the suspects lived in a rented apartment. Two of the detainees were born in 2004, one in 2003. According to the Interior Ministry, the oldest of the suspects had already been convicted of theft in 2018.

A criminal case has been initiated against all three defendants under Part 2 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud), they are under a written undertaking not to leave the place. In the footage of the operational shooting of the detention, published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, two of the participants in the criminal scheme confess to what they did and tell the employees how they stole money. Attackers can face up to five years in prison.

The official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Irina Volk, spoke about the theft scheme through fake Telegram channels, which was used by the attackers.

"It has been preliminarily established that the attackers placed ... messages about the need to purchase equipment for the needs of military personnel performing tasks in the NVO zone. Those wishing to help were offered to transfer money to bank cards allegedly belonging to volunteers. After that, the collected funds were stolen, "Wolf explained.

"The identities of the participants in the criminal business were established, they were detained on the territory of the city of Perm. According to investigators, two of them received money on their debit cards from subscribers of the channel from different regions of the Russian Federation. Intermediaries transferred funds to the organizers of the scheme, retaining part of it as a reward, "the representative of the department added.

Criminal scheme

In a video of the detention published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, one of the suspects tells how he and his accomplices deceived subscribers of fake channels.

"I have been detained for transfers. The transfers came from people who supported the special operation and Russian soldiers, they transferred money, we collected it," says the detainee. "After that, we transferred this money to the person for details - supposedly for fees."

When asked by a police officer whether the collected funds were used in the future for the needs of the SVO, the young man replied in the negative.

The second detainee, who got into the footage of operational shooting, allegedly acted as an intermediary in the criminal scheme. He told the police that he worked for a percentage of the amounts received by him in the account.

"He (the accomplice. - RT) says: if grandmothers come - I will just continue to send. And then he paid me 1.5% of the total amount for the whole day. He paid the money in the evening, at night already - at 12 o'clock, at two, "says the suspect.

When questioned by law enforcement officers during the arrest, he confessed to what he had done.

  • Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Perm detained the organizers of fake training camps for participants in the NWO

Beware of scammers

Margarita Simonyan in her Telegram channel thanked the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the prompt detention of the attackers who collected money on her behalf. Earlier, the editor-in-chief of RT emphasized that she does not conduct any "fees to the front", but helps herself.

"Once again, I remind everyone: be vigilant, do not be fooled by fake channels, do not transfer money to those you do not know," Simonyan said in a comment on the detention of fraudsters in Perm.

Earlier, RT wrote about scammers on social networks that intensified after the start of the NWO. Often, attackers pretend to be well-known military correspondents and announce fundraisers on fake channels, supposedly for the needs of the NWO. War correspondents Alexander Sladkov and Alexander Kots, military expert Boris Rozhin and many others faced such schemes at different times. Often, it is not possible to quickly block fake resources created by attackers who rob ordinary citizens.

Scammers can also impersonate well-known organizations. As the chairman of the board of the Union of Donbass Volunteers, Alexander Borodai, told RT, attackers regularly try to hold gatherings on behalf of the organization.

Many scammers operate from abroad, so it can be very difficult to catch them, and even more so to return money to deceived citizens. Expert Boris Rozhin, in an interview with RT, also stated that often "fees for the NWO" are conducted by attackers from the territory of Ukraine.