Russian Officials Investigate Illegal Benefit Scheme

Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs officials detained 10 suspects involved in organizing a fraudulent registration scheme to obtain social benefits. Perpetrators illegally registered residents from the North Caucasus Federal District in other regions, including Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Yakutia, Murmansk Oblast, and Kamchatka Krai. Damages from the scheme have exceeded 1 billion rubles. The perpetrators used Multi-Functional Centers (MFC) to process documents, allegedly acting with the consent of some involved parties. Criminal cases have been opened against those detained, and proceedings have begun against property owners who provided addresses for the scheme. A criminal scheme has been identified targeting daily financial subsidies in Russia's northern regions. The scheme involved individuals using powers of attorney to process documents through Multifunctional Centers (MFC). The size of the subsidies in these northern regions is significantly higher than in other parts of the country. Authorities have established that the fraud targeted these specific higher-value payments. More than 150 million rubles stolen by fraudsters have been returned to victims since the beginning of March 2026. Vadim Uvarov, Director of the Information Security Department at the Bank of Russia, provided these details. Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs official Irina Volk reported an illegal scheme involving fraudulent registrations of North Caucasus residents in northern regions.