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The Minsk Prosecutor’s Office has sent to court a criminal case against a 43-year-old foreign national accused of fraud on an especially large scale committed by a group of people. According to the investigation, he and two accomplices defrauded an acquaintance of more than 3 million rubles by convincing him to invest in a non-existent computer game development project.
According to the case materials, no later than May 2022, the accused conspired with a 44-year-old native of Hrodna and a 26-year-old Minsk resident. The victim was offered the opportunity to purchase a license for a computer game and then invest money in its further development and subsequent sale. In reality, none of the group members owned the game’s source code. To create the appearance that work was underway on the project, they provided the victim with fictitious contracts, technical specifications and false information about employees allegedly involved in the development.
They solicited additional money from the man under the pretext of creating new characters and fixing technical problems that arose. One of the accomplices also played the role of a potential foreign buyer of the software and persuaded the victim to continue investing money in the project.
As a result, the victim suffered losses of more than 3 million rubles.
The case against the 43-year-old accused was previously separated into a separate proceeding because he was wanted. The man was planning to leave Belarus but was detained.
The two other participants in the scheme have already been convicted. The Pervomaisky District Court of Minsk found them guilty of fraud on an especially large scale committed by a group of people. They were sentenced to six and five years in prison, respectively, as well as fines of 300 and 100 basic units. The verdict has entered into force.
The criminal case against the foreign national was investigated by the Minsk City Department of the Investigative Committee. The prosecutor’s office found the charges substantiated and agreed with the legal classification of the actions under Part 4 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Belarus.
The accused remains in custody, the Prosecutor General’s Office press service reported.