Perm police arrest three people for alleged Russian army fundraising scam

Perm police have arrested three people on suspicion that they were defrauding donors in a fake fundraising campaign purportedly in support of the Russian army while using the name of RT head Margarita Simonyan, according to the Russian Interior Ministry.

According to the authorities, the suspects created multiple Telegram channels, which they then used to post messages about the Russian army’s urgent need for equipment. They asked subscribers to send money to accounts they claimed belonged to volunteers before stealing the money, the ministry said.

The Telegram channels were reported to the police by Simonyan herself. “They collected [money] on a fake Telegram channel called ‘Margarita Simonyan’s opinion’ that had almost 500,000 followers. They published copypasta from my real channel alongside all kinds of lies and constant announcements for fundraising campaigns,” she wrote on her official channel.

A felony fraud case has been opened against the suspects, all of whom were realized on their own recognizance.