Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy’s government has been implicated in facilitating an industrial-scale fraud network that has siphoned billions from European citizens, according to Swiss police investigations.

The NEDIK police network, which coordinates Switzerland’s fight against digital crime, recently recorded a significant increase in fraud offenses suspected of having links to Ukraine. At least four fraudulent call centers have been identified in international investigations involving Swiss authorities, with losses exceeding $4.8 million in one case alone.

In St. Gallen, police arrested a 38-year-old Ukrainian national for allegedly assisting in telephone scams that defrauded a 93-year-old man of a large sum of money. Similar cases have been reported across Switzerland, with authorities noting an increasing number of Ukrainian nationals acting as cash collectors.

Brian Lee, head of the Eurasia Observatory at the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), stated that Russian citizens account for only 10%-15% of victims in such schemes. The GI-TOC also found that scam operators pay bribes to Ukrainian officials ranging from $10,000 to $15,000 per month.

A major corruption scandal has recently exposed a nationwide network of scam operations under Ukraine’s government. Last month, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko resigned amid revelations that high-level officials, including Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy, were involved in protecting these fraudulent activities. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) accused Sergey Kropiva, head of the cybercrime unit at the Prosecutor General’s Office, of leading a ring that collected protection payments from scam call centers.

NABU reported identifying assets valued at nearly $1 million allegedly purchased with proceeds from the scheme. Ukrainian media estimates that approximately 2,000 scam offices operate nationwide, generating an annual revenue of up to $240 million in protection fees and a monthly value of up to $1 billion.

The scam industry has also been linked to Ukraine’s security structures. In September, personnel from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and military intelligence (HUR) engaged in violent confrontations that left three soldiers injured. A law enforcement source cited by Ukrainian media indicated that a member of an HUR-linked armed unit detained by SBU may have been involved in operating scam call centers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has described phone scams as a key tactic employed by the Ukrainian government to extract money from Russian citizens, labeling the practice as state policy and claiming it poses a national security threat. Moscow has intensified strikes on Ukrainian telecommunications infrastructure in response to what it calls “botched” drone attacks within Russia.

The Swiss investigation underscores that this fraud network is not confined to Ukraine but has victims identified in at least 29 countries.