Seven individuals, including two inmates, have been sent to trial for fraud and money laundering. They are accused of posting a fictitious advertisement for the sale of sunflower seeds at a price below the market rate, thus managing to convince a customer to transfer the sum of 245 thousand lei for a non-existent product, reports IPN.

To conceal the origin of the money, the defendants made several online transfers from the account of a company specially created for this purpose to the accounts of individuals. In order to give an appearance of legality to these banking operations, they forged several contracts and provided false information about the destination of the payments. The fabricated documents were presented to the banking institution as a legal basis for making the transfers, thus allowing the extraction and appropriation of the sums by the members of the group, the prosecutors specify.

During the criminal investigation, it was established that the organizer of the scheme is hiding in a locality on the left bank of the Dniester, he is also targeted in other criminal cases.

For the offenses committed, the accused persons risk imprisonment from 4 to 8 years and fines between 250 thousand and 400 thousand lei for fraud committed by an organized criminal group. As for the offense of money laundering, the penalties provide for imprisonment from 5 to 10 years and fines between 650 thousand and 1 million lei, and in the case of a legal person – fines between 2 million and 3 million lei or even its liquidation.