Disappearance of academician Mykola Kolbun in Bucha - a female friend is suspected of stealing 18 million hryvnias
Kyiv • UNN
The scientist's female friend from Bucha, along with accomplices, tried to seize his property using fictitious documents. Law enforcement has already announced suspicion to the group.
Law enforcement officers suspect a friend of a well-known Ukrainian bioengineering scientist, an academician of the Ukrainian and European Academies of Sciences, of misappropriating property worth over UAH 18 million. The scientist himself lived in Bucha, Kyiv region - in March 2022, during the Russian occupation, the 77-year-old scientist suddenly disappeared. This is reported by UNN with reference to the Office of the Prosecutor General.
Details
The investigation established that his friend, who helped the missing person with household chores, was involved in the criminal scheme of seizing property. She acted in collusion with her cohabitant and an acquaintance - a native of the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation, as well as other persons.
After the scientist's disappearance, the participants organized the forgery of a will: by entering false data into the Inheritance Register, the real document was replaced with a fictitious one - in favor of the woman. The will itself was made separately and signed on behalf of Kolbun. Subsequently, they initiated a court procedure to declare him deceased in order to gain access to the inheritance
As part of the investigation, more than 30 witnesses were interrogated, documents and equipment were seized, and 16 searches were conducted in various regions of Ukraine.
The woman and her cohabitant were notified of suspicion, and their accomplice (a citizen of the Russian Federation) was notified in absentia. They are charged with unauthorized actions with information, forgery of documents, and attempted fraud on a particularly large scale, committed by a group of persons
The Ukrainian court chose pre-trial detention for the suspects with the alternative of bail.
At the same time, other involved persons and possible additional episodes are being established.
Separately, the circumstances of the academician's disappearance are being checked. Human remains were found near the place where his phone was found. The prosecutor's office initiated a DNA examination