Four Belarusians Sentenced to 6–9 Years in Prison for Scheme Involving Apartments of Deceased Moscow Residents

Reform.news Editorial Team · 14 October 2026, 17:22

https://reform.news/en/four-belarusians-sentenced-to-6-9-years-in-prison-for-scheme-involving-apartments-of-deceased-moscow-residents/

Four residents of Pinsk and Pinsk District have been sentenced to between six and nine years in prison on charges of attempting to fraudulently obtain real estate belonging to Russian citizens.

According to the Brest Region Prosecutor’s Office, the prosecutor’s office reported that between 2021 and 2025, the defendants “became members of a structural unit of an international criminal organization” operating in Belarus. One of them headed the unit.

The defendants attempted to inherit apartments in Moscow using forged documents. They made counterfeit stamps and seals, obtained genuine birth and marriage certificate forms from unsuspecting individuals, entered false information on them, and forged signatures in the names of other people and government officials.

Using the forged documents, they attempted to inherit apartments in Moscow following the deaths of their owners. Investigators established that the defendants attempted to seize property worth more than $1 million.

The Leninski District Court of Brest sentenced them to prison terms ranging from six to nine years and imposed fines ranging from 11,250 to 27,000 rubles.

The verdict has not yet entered into force and may be appealed.