Harju County Court found the Ukrainian leader of a phone scam ring guilty under a plea bargain of fraud and handed him a suspended sentence, deportation order and 10-year Schengen zone ban. A €8.5 million payment to the state was factored into his sentence.
On Thursday, the court, in a plea agreement procedure, found Artur Yermolayev guilty of establishing and leading a criminal organization specializing in telephone fraud.
Yermolayev was accused of creating and leading, together with three other men, a network of scam-call offices located in Ukraine since 2017.
According to the charges, victims were offered non-existent investment opportunities over the phone, and €100 million was defrauded between 2019 and 2022. Of this, an estimated €5.4 million was taken from more than 500 Estonian residents, Eesti Ekspress reported.
Yermolayev was detained in Cyprus late last year.
As punishment, the court on Thursday handed the 35-year-old a five-year prison sentence, of which four months and 26 days must be served immediately.
The rest of the term – four years, seven months, and four days — will not be served in prison unless Yermolayev commits a crime during a five-year probation period.
Yermolayev will also be expelled from Estonia and handed a 10-year entry ban, the longest possible term.
When discussing the sentence, the Prosecutor’s Office took into account that Yermolayev had agreed – even before concluding the plea agreement – to pay €8.5 million to the Estonian state.
The money is already in the Prosecutor’s Office deposit account and will be transferred to the Estonian state when the verdict enters into force.
The payment will be used to compensate the victims, with the excess going to the state budget.
Although this cannot be formally considered a punishment, in the court’s view, it nevertheless has a punitive effect, the court said in a press release.
The court decision has not entered into force.
Eesti Ekspress newspaper reported earlier this week that the agreement would be favorable for Yermolayev, as the Penal Code can hand out 5-15-year prison terms for those found guilty of leading a criminal organization.
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