Kabardino-Balkaria’s Interior Ministry is investigating a criminal case for illegally obtaining bank loans. According to investigators, scammers defrauded more than ₽18 million ($300,000) from credit institutions.

‘A group of 25 people is suspected of organising a criminal plot in Nalchik in 2013–2014 to steal money. The suspects were applying for and receiving consumer loans in various commercial banks for the purchase of fur and jewelry, furniture, and modern windows. The contracts were registered to individuals with fictitious documents’, Kabardino-Balkaria’s Ministry of Internal affairs said.

Investigators managed to persuade one of the defendants — a 17-year-old resident of Nalchik — to cooperate, and the charges are partly based on her testimony.

In May 2017, Kabardino-Balkaria’s Interior Ministry launched another criminal case against three residents of Nalchik for illegally obtaining fraudulent consumer loans of more than ₽50 million ($827,000) from banks .