17 people arrested for abuse of position, 12 million dinars earned by selling fake diplomas

Members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, UKP, Service for Combating Organized Crime, by order of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime, arrested 17 persons belonging to two organized criminal groups, due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that they committed criminal acts of conspiracy to commit criminal acts and falsification of documents for an extended period of time, while four arrested persons from these OKGs are also charged with the criminal offense of abuse of official position.

Arrested were RB (65), AB (36), BD (48), SK (40), B. Đ. (61), DG (70), SK (63), ID (30), MB (73), MP (68), ZV (62), MN (62), SB (41), NG(66), NP (65), VS (40) and LRS (1968).

In the period from April 2023 until today, the suspects created more than 400 false public documents – contracts, powers of attorney, diplomas of secondary, higher, and higher education institutions – in an illegal printing house in the territory of Belgrade, with the intention that the clients would use them in legal traffic as made and acquired in a legal manner.

Persons employed in the Ministries were also arrested

In this way, as is suspected, they obtained illegal property benefits in the amount of more than 12 million dinars. Among those arrested are two persons employed in the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government, as well as one person employed in the Ministry of Internal Affairswho are suspected of using their official position to carry out checks through the closed bases of the registry services and the MUP, for the persons for whom the falsified documents were prepared.

Too, one person employed in the Ministry of Education was arrestedfor which there are grounds for suspicion that by using her official position with these forged documents, she employed persons in state institutions for a certain amount of money.

Suspects will be brought to the competent Public Prosecutor’s Office for organized crime along with a criminal report.