Five Minsk women for almost 10 years extorted money from sellers: the damage exceeded 100 thousand. BYN

The Prosecutor’s office of the Mogilev region sent to the court the materials of the criminal case against five residents of the capital. They are accused of embezzling other people's property by extortion - the crime was committed by an organized group on an especially large scale, the correspondent of the Minsk-Novosti news agency reports, citing the Prosecutor General's Office.

As the investigation found out, the women merged into a criminal group in December 2015. From January 2016 to July 2025, they acted according to a preconceived scheme: under the guise of ordinary customers visited retail outlets across the country, found violations of trade rules and threatened store employees with an entry in the book of comments and suggestions.

Out of fear of publicity and inspections by regulatory authorities, employees of retail facilities agreed to purchase training seminars from the perpetrators. For this purpose, contracts were concluded, and the money was transferred to the accounts of the organizations controlled by the accused.

To give their actions the appearance of legitimate activities, the defendants created two commercial organizations. Extortion was disguised as voluntary civil relations. This legend allowed the band to go unnoticed for almost a decade.

During this time, more than 430 people became victims of the attackers. The total amount of stolen funds exceeded 101.8 thousand BYN.

After studying the materials of the case, employees of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Mogilev region recognized the accusation as substantiated, and the evidence collected was sufficient. The actions of the accused are qualified under Part 3 of Art. 208 of the Criminal Code of Belarus. The previously chosen preventive measures – detention and personal guarantee – remained unchanged.