“Officers of the Investigative Department and the Department for Economic Security and Combating the Corruption of the MIA of Russia Administration for the Tula Region detained organizers and members of a criminal community, suspected of fraud.

According to the investigation, four local residents created two consumer cooperatives with the aim of stealing money from citizens and involved four other residents of the region in the illegal activities. Those associations operated on the territory of twelve constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

The offenders carried out an aggressive advertising campaign aimed at people of retirement age. The population was offered to become shareholders in order to make profit from the investment of their own money. They were promised a high return on deposits, significantly exceeding the current rates of credit organizations.

Subsequently, the defendants misled the citizens who were interested in the project, informing them that the deposits were insured and in a force majeure case all the money would be returned.

After the conclusion of mutual participation contracts, for a short time, the accomplices paid the clients interest on their deposits. However, later all payments were stopped.

Investigation Administration of the MIA of Russia Administration for the Tula Region instituted criminal cases on the grounds of offenses stipulated by Article 159 and Article 210 of the RF Criminal Code.

According to preliminary data, through deception and abuse of trust, the defendants stole that way, more than 130 million rubles from more than a thousand people.

Currently, with regard to four of the suspects placement to custody has been selected as the preventive measure and two others are under house arrest. Two more alleged leaders of the criminal community have been put on the federal wanted list,” said the MIA of Russia Spokesperson Irina Volk.