Selling a position as a business: what is known about the group posing as Yermak’s “family”?
7 November 20:14
Police detained three members of a fraud group posing as influential intermediaries in the government.
The key figure was a man who introduced himself as the “cousin of the head of the Presidential Office,” Andriy Yermak. Yermak himself reported this on social media, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
He convinced people that he could “arrange” appointments to positions in government agencies, from the Cabinet of Ministers to the Verkhovna Rada.
For such “services,” the fraudsters demanded $100,000 each, and to create the illusion of influence, they changed votes with special programs and even hung license plates on cars.
Reaction of the President’s Office
Andriy Yermak was the first to report the detention.
“I just learned from the police that they caught a group of fraudsters red-handed. It was headed by a certain Yermak D. S., who was called my cousin. Of course, this is a fiction,” the head of the OP wrote.
Yermak thanked the law enforcement officers and called on Ukrainians to be vigilant to any “intermediaries in power”.
Details of the case
According to the National Police and the Prosecutor General’s Office, Yermak’s “relative” acted together with two accomplices who confirmed his story.
The group was detained red-handed while receiving part of the money.
The suspects are now being served with a notice of suspicion of fraud on a large scale (Article 190 of the Criminal Code) and an arrest warrant. They face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
