Five members of an alleged criminal group are set to stand trial in Ukraine, accused of using forged documents purporting to come from a notary in Monaco in an attempt to seize property worth more than 21.3 million hryvnias, roughly €475,000, belonging to an Azerbaijani national, according to Monaco-Matin‘s reporting on a statement issued by Ukraine’s National Police on Friday.
The scheme targeted an apartment and a parking space in Kyiv, with prosecutors alleging the group built an elaborate financial structure designed to strip the victim of her property without her knowledge. Among those implicated is an employee of a state-owned public transport company in the Ukrainian capital, along with his 31-year-old son.
Central to the plan was a fabricated power of attorney, falsely presented as having been certified by a notary in the Principality of Monaco. Investigators say the group used the forged document to convince the property owner that she had authorised them to manage her assets, ultimately registering the real estate under the name of a shell company one of the suspects controlled.
To finalise the transfer, the group approached a notary in Transcarpathia, who, deceived by the falsified paperwork, validated the transaction without suspecting anything was amiss.
The scheme unravelled just before the group could resell the property. According to Ukraine’s National Police, the suspects never had the chance to dispose of the real estate or complete their plan, as law enforcement uncovered the operation and seized the victim’s assets before any sale could take place.
The five suspects now face charges of large-scale attempted fraud committed by an organised group, with three of them additionally charged over the falsification and use of forged documents. The case has since been referred to court, with the accused facing up to eight years in prison and the confiscation of their assets if convicted.
Image courtesy of Ukraine National Police