Prisoners extorted money from military families — what the court decided

Two prisoners from the Rivne region contacted the families of captured or missing Ukrainian military personnel and promised to provide information about a relative for a reward. For this the court punished them.

This is stated in the court verdict published in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions.

Case Details

According to the case materials, prisoners of the Katerynivska correctional colony Oleksandr Chernyshov and Maksym Filippov have been engaged in fraud using online ads since October 2022. They purposefully searched for reports of missing or captured Ukrainian servicemen, after which they contacted their relatives.

The defendants convinced the families of the missing soldiers that they had information about their fate. Then, playing on the feelings of their relatives, they offered to organize a phone call with the alleged prisoner, and later – even to help with his release. For these “services”, the prisoners demanded money, the amount of which varied depending on the victims' reaction.

The investigation revealed that Chernyshov and Filippov defrauded at least 12 people, causing them financial losses in the amount of more than 106 thousand hryvnias. 

Court decision

The judge of the Sarny District Court, Ihor Dovhy, ruled in the case of two prisoners of the Katerynivska Correctional Colony, finding them guilty of fraud committed in large size (Part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Given the circumstances of the case, the organizer of the criminal scheme received 5 years and 6 months of imprisonment, and his accomplice – 5 years and 3 months of imprisonment. The sentence has not yet entered into force, since the convicted have the right to appeal.