Participants in a housing fraud case involving displaced persons have been convicted in Stavropol.

A court in Stavropol found two people guilty of large-scale fraud involving housing and property payments for displaced persons from Kherson and the Kherson region, with damages totaling over 106 million.

As reported by Caucasian Knot, on May 3, 2022, a train carrying a group of internally displaced persons from Ukraine and Donbas arrived in Nevinnomyssk . By that time, more than 3,000 refugees had arrived in Stavropol, 300 of whom were in temporary accommodation centers. On June 18, 2022, Stavropol Krai accepted another 407 internally displaced persons from Donbas. On July 9, 2022, 54 people, including 17 children, were placed in three temporary accommodation centers for internally displaced persons from the DPR and LPR in the Georgievsk District of Stavropol.

According to the investigation, between 2022 and 2024, the defendants provided Anastasia Savchenko, deputy head of a department at the regional Ministry of Housing and Public Utilities, with bank account details opened in their names and those of their acquaintances. Savchenko, using access to the state information system "Housing and Utilities Reform," then embezzled budget funds allocated by the Territorial Development Fund for the resettlement of residents of Kherson and the Kherson region who had moved to Stavropol, the press service of the Stavropol Krai Prosecutor's Office reported today.

The official created registration cards for applicants in "Housing and Utilities Reform" to receive one-time payments for housing and property, deliberately providing false information that would have referred to the territory of Kherson and the Kherson region.

She then prepared packages of documents and drafted ministerial decrees, which transferred social payments to bank accounts transferred by the defendants. The damage to the Territorial Development Fund was estimated at more than 106 million rubles.

Real estate and cars were purchased to launder the money. A total of 29 criminal cases were opened, which were consolidated into one proceeding.

The prosecutor's office noted that Savchenko had previously been sentenced by the Leninsky District Court of Stavropol to three years in a general regime penal colony. Furthermore, following a lawsuit filed by the Stavropol Krai Prosecutor, the official was dismissed due to loss of trust.

The court found the defendants guilty of fraud committed by an organized group 1 and money laundering 2 and sentenced them to terms ranging from 3 years, 6 months to 4 years, 3 months in a general regime penal colony, with fines of 1 million rubles each, the department clarified.