A resident of Lviv, Nazarii Husakov, who organized a public fundraising campaign for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), has been notified of a new suspicion — of legalizing property obtained through criminal means. This was reported by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, as conveyed by UNN.
A little over a year ago, we launched this investigation to answer a question that worried thousands of Ukrainians: whether the funds people donated for treatment were used as intended. Today, the investigation has taken another important step. The Lviv resident who organized the public fundraising for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) has been notified of a new suspicion — of legalizing property obtained through criminal means
Details
According to the investigation, the funds that people transferred, hoping to save a life, subsequently passed through a complex system of financial transactions. They were transferred through the cryptocurrency services Binance and WhiteBIT, distributed among more than 1,170 bank cards of other individuals, converted into the cryptocurrency USDT, and moved between numerous crypto wallets.
All of this, according to the investigation, was intended to complicate the establishment of the origin of the funds and conceal their further movement. The total volume of financial transactions examined exceeds UAH 162.5 million. These circumstances are confirmed by the conclusion of a forensic examination
According to the Prosecutor General, the investigation has also identified new victims. While at the time of the first suspicion notice there were 34, today there are already 96. The amount of established damages has increased from UAH 1.3 million to over UAH 2 million. The suspect is cooperating with the investigation, providing necessary explanations, and fully admitting his guilt in the crimes charged.
The pre-trial investigation into the facts of fraud and legalization of property committed on an especially large scale has been completed. After the materials are opened to the defense, the indictment will be sent to court. But this, according to Kravchenko, is not the end of the work.
In a separate criminal proceeding, we continue to establish the full route of the funds' movement, all persons who may have been involved in the financial transactions, as well as the actual users of the cryptocurrency wallets through which the money passed. Other financial transactions not yet covered by the notified suspicions are also being checked. If other individuals involved in this scheme are identified, each of them will bear responsibility in accordance with the law. People's trust cannot be a means of illegal enrichment
Context
A resident of Lviv, Nazarii Husakov, who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, is suspected of fraud during the fundraising for treatment. Social media users noticed discrepancies in his reports, traces of Photoshop on screenshots, and suggest that he inflated the need for medication, withdrew money into crypto, and spent it on gambling.
Law enforcement officers conducted checks and identified those involved and affected individuals, as well as the whereabouts of Husakov, who left Ukraine last year.
Law enforcement officers also opened two criminal proceedings regarding the fundraising for the treatment of the Lviv resident.
Last year, on July 24, after a long absence from the public space, Nazarii Husakov got in touch. He recorded a video message from a clinic in Milan, Italy, where, according to him, he was undergoing treatment. "Today I learned that the Prosecutor General's Office wants to serve me a suspicion notice. I am not hiding from the investigation and the court. I am reporting my physical location. This is the San Raffaele medical facility in Milan," Nazarii said in a video on social media.
Meanwhile, the police conducted searches in Kyiv and Lviv at his places of residence and those of his relatives and acquaintances to establish possible facts of misuse of charitable funds for treatment.
Earlier UNN wrote that in the case of fraud with fundraising for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, over 400 people have been questioned. Of the UAH 100 million collected by Nazarii Husakov, UAH 2 million appear in the suspicion due to the refusal of 337 victims to make claims.