Employees of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Stavropol Territory, together with operatives from the regional Directorate of the FSB, detained in Moscow the assistant pastor of the Christian Mission Church, who is suspected of fraud. According to the press service of the Stavropol police, the 47-year-old man took huge sums of money from the parishioners, with which he decided to hide.
– For four years, the man, being previously the assistant pastor of the Stavropol Church “Christian Mission” (part of the Russian United Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith), under various pretexts borrowed money from residents of the region, other regions and even countries, using his position and existing between him and the parishioners have a trusting relationship, the ministry said in a statement.
The assistant pastor told people that he would return the money. The man said to some that the funds would go to business development, to others that he was investing them in the production of drugs. Having collected many large loans, the attacker simply disappeared. In total, 11 people were injured, and the amount of damage amounted to a whopping 58 million rubles.
They found the priest at his relatives in Moscow, where he was detained. Immediately after that, he was taken to Stavropol. A criminal case was opened against him under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Fraud committed on an especially large scale.” The court sent the suspect under arrest for a month and seven days until October 17, 2021.
Now the investigation continues to establish the circle of victims and collect evidence.
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