Russian military recruiters charged with stealing contract soldiers’ benefits

Police and FSB agents arrested three people in the Vladimir region working at a military recruitment center. The Internal Affairs Ministry’s spokeswoman said on Wednesday that the suspects stole SIM card numbers from men enlisting as contract soldiers and then remotely seized control of their bank accounts, embezzling more than 11 million rubles ($113,000) in benefits paid to the soldiers.

Officials say they seized the stolen money, and the suspects are now in pretrial detention awaiting felony theft charges.