President Volodymyr Zelensky has submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada proposing severe criminal penalties for individuals who organize, staff, or support fraudulent call centers, with prison sentences exceeding 10 years for key participants. According to the legislative text, the proposed measures target various roles within these illegal operations, ranging from organizational leadership to facility leasing and recruitment.
Proposed Penalties for Call Center Operators and Organizers
The newly submitted legislation outlines specific prison terms and asset seizures depending on a person’s involvement in the illicit networks. Creating or leading a fraudulent organization or its structural part carries a prison sentence of 7 to 12 years with property confiscation, according to the text.
Individuals who work in such a call center while knowing its illegal nature face 5 to 10 years in prison, with or without property confiscation. Providing premises or services to these operations also incurs a prison sentence of 5 to 10 years.
Did You Know?
Earlier in August, the National Police and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko reported that a nationwide special operation dismantled 94 fraudulent call centers that defrauded victims in Ukraine, the European Union, and Central Asia of more than 100 million hryvnias, following an earlier network shutdown in July that involved losses exceeding 210 million hryvnias across Kyiv, Lviv, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts, as reported by pravda.com.ua.
Recruitment Penalties and Whistleblower Protections
The draft legislation also targets the personnel pipeline driving these scam operations. Intentionally recruiting another person through job offers or other means carries a prison term of 3 to 5 years, while repeat recruitment increases the penalty to 5 to 10 years in prison.
At the same time, the text includes an exemption clause. Any person who reports the creation or activity of such an organization to law enforcement will be released from punishment, though this immunity explicitly excludes the original creator of the fraudulent organization.
Context and Implementation Timeline
The legislative push follows a series of high-profile law enforcement crackdowns across the country. According to an evening address by President Zelensky reported by pravda.com.ua, the president stated he would send the bills to parliament in the morning, emphasizing that the issue must be resolved through both law enforcement actions and stricter laws so that all organizers are held accountable.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the maximum prison sentence proposed for organizers of fraudulent call centers?
The creation or leadership of a fraudulent organization or its structural part carries a prison term of 7 to 12 years with confiscation of property, while overall penalties for organizers can exceed 10 years.
Can individuals working in these call centers avoid punishment by coming forward?
Yes, individuals who report the creation or activity of such an organization to law enforcement are released from punishment, except for the person who originally created the fraudulent organization.
What are the penalties for providing premises or services to illegal call centers?
Providing premises or services carries a prison sentence ranging from 5 to 10 years.
What further measures do you think are necessary to eradicate illegal call center networks?