The Asset Recovery and Management Agency, together with the Investigation Department of the Obolon Police Department in Kyiv and the State Border Guard Service, have uncovered a large-scale scheme for the illegal sale of newborn children abroad.
This was stated by the head of the Asset Recovery and Management Agency, Olena Duma.
According to her, the scheme was organised by the owners of private clinics in Kyiv and Kharkiv with the participation of lawyers, translators and medical staff.
‘The group operated under the guise of surrogacy, recruiting women in difficult life circumstances. They were offered 12,000 euros to participate in the programme. After the birth of the child, women were forced to provide false information during registration, give up the child in favour of foreigners and give permission to take the child abroad,’ Duma said, noting that the cost of the transaction per child ranged from 50 to 70 thousand euros.
Assets belonging to members of the criminal group were identified in Ukraine. Among them:
- 24 real estate objects,
- 9 land plots,
- 10 vehicles,
- UAH 2.5 million,
- 4 objects of intellectual property.
During the investigation, it was established that the offenders opened bank accounts in different countries, regularly changed their places of registration and travelled extensively, visiting luxury resorts around the world.
In cooperation with foreign law enforcement agencies, the ARMA found vehicles abroad and bank accounts in the USA, Romania, Denmark and Germany. We also confirmed the facts of border crossings by the offenders and their associates.
In 2021, the Security Service in Kharkiv Region exposed an interregional group of criminals led by Kyiv-based reproductive specialists who set up a scheme to ‘supply’ foreigners with babies under the guise of a surrogacy programme.Meanwhile, last year Italy passed the most restrictive law in the West against international surrogacy. Prospective parents who use surrogates abroad face jail time and stiff fines.