Employees of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs detained a local resident in the Belgorod region who was trying to sell a large batch of counterfeit money in the region. The operatives confiscated from the man 25 million rubles, which he made in his apartment, as well as clichés and machines for applying watermarks and protective tapes to banknotes.
Law enforcement sources told Kommersant that on the morning of July 25, on Pridorozhnaya Street in the village of Nizhny Olshanets, operatives from the Belgorod FSB and UEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia detained Andrei Fokin, a 37-year-old resident of Belgorod, who was trying to sell a large amount of counterfeit money. The police opened a criminal case against him on the manufacture, storage, transportation and distribution of counterfeit banknotes (part 2 of article 186 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The maximum sanction of the article provides for a punishment of 12 years in prison.
According to investigators, Andrei Fokin organized the production of counterfeit money in his apartment in a five-story building on Telman Street. From the end of May of this year until the end of last week, he produced 5,000 counterfeit five-thousandth banknotes, which are most popular with counterfeiters. According to official statistics, last year in the Belgorod region in more than 50% of cases, banknotes with a face value of 5 thousand rubles were forged and sold.
Investigators seized 50 boxes from the crime scene, each containing 100 counterfeit banknotes.
Also, the detainee was found with five clichés for applying a protective tape on banknotes, a self-made watermarking machine, a laptop with software and other equipment.
Andrey Fokin, who works in the production of Belpak expanded polystyrene trays, was detained, according to Kommersant’s sources in law enforcement agencies, the investigation is deciding whether to choose a preventive measure for him.
Kommersant’s interlocutor in law enforcement says that Belgorod operatives are methodically clearing the region of the fruits of the work of counterfeiters. For example, according to official data of the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, last year 119 cases of sale of counterfeit money were registered in the region. Compared to 2021, the number of such crimes decreased by 32%.
The most publicized scam was the story of counterfeit currency smugglers from Turkey. One of them was a citizen of Ukraine Sergey Pavlov, who planned to deliver almost $ 8 thousand to his homeland through Belgorod and received a year and a half in prison for this. His accomplices received up to three years in a strict regime colony. A year ago, Mikhail Kalinin from Belgorod was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for possession of 104 counterfeit 5,000-dollar bills and 25 hundred-dollar bills.
