In St. Petersburg, mortgage fraudsters built air castles and got caught

St. Petersburg police detained three people suspected of embezzling money under the preferential mortgage program. The bank suffered damage of more than 142 million rubles. This was reported in the GU MIA in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region.

From April to December 2023, the defendants found fake borrowers and issued a mortgage on them for the construction of private houses. The documents were bogus. So they received at least 13 loans totaling over 154.8 million rubles.

To make it look like they were building houses. In fact, the construction was either not finished or was carried out with the cheapest materials. Most of the money was taken by the participants of the scheme.

On these facts, criminal cases were opened under the article on fraud, later they were combined into one. At the end of September, the police, with the support of the special regiment and Regardie, simultaneously detained in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, Moscow and the Moscow region, as well as in Samara and the Samara region. Two men, aged 39 and 41, and a 43-year-old woman were arrested.

During the searches, five laptops, seventeen phones, bank cards, documents, electronic media and seals were seized. All three were arrested. Police are now investigating whether they had accomplices and other episodes.