MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) - The Federal Security Service has announced the detention of heads and employees of the Russian branch of an international network of call centers defrauding citizens of EU member states, the UK, Canada, Brazil, India and Japan under the guise of investment deals.
"The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has put an end to the illegal activity of the international network of call centers operating to the benefit of former Georgian Defense Minister, Milton Group founder David Kezerashvili, currently in hiding in London," the FSB public relations center said on Monday.
According to the FSB, the call centers "were part of an organized transborder criminal group engaged in mass fraud against citizens of EU member states, the UK, Canada, Brazil, India, Japan and others under the guise of investment deals."
About 100,000 residents of over 50 states fell victim of the fraudsters, the FSB said.
"Revenues from illegal activity reached $1 million a day," it said.
Operative and investigative procedures allowed identifying heads of the call centers operating in Russia as Keselman, a citizen of Israel and Ukraine who was detained, and Todva, a citizen of Israel and Georgia who was put on the wanted list, the FSB said.
In all, 11 heads and employees of Russian offices of the call centers have been detained as part of the criminal case opened by the FSB investigative department on counts of organization of a criminal network, major fraud, and knowingly false report of a terrorist attack.
In 2022, Keselman and Todva, "acting on the orders from the Security Service of Ukraine, organized the sending of anonymous reports about pending terror attacks on critical infrastructure of Moscow, Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod," the FSB said.
In April 2023, then Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili accused former Georgian Defense Minister Kezerashvili of international fraud and sponsorship of the radical Georgian opposition with stolen money.
"Over the past two years, our investigative agencies have been actively cooperating with German colleagues to uncover an international fraud scheme, where, regretfully, our former Defense Minister, Mr. Kezerashvili was identified as an international fraudster," Garibashvili said.
He said that Kezerashvili set up an international fraudulent network, which stole billions of dollars from European pensioners.
Earlier, BBC published an investigative report on call centers in Georgia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Albania that drew European pensioners into non-existent financial operations, promising prompt large revenues from investments. The money disappeared, and the pensioners could not find the fraudsters.
BBC said Kezerashvili, who lives in London in a house that costs 18 million pounds (about $22 million), led the network.
Russia charged Kezerashvili in absentia with fraud and put him on the wanted list.