The justice affairs spokesman for the Berlin prosecutor's office, Björn Retzlaff, told Deutsche Welle that for almost a year - from February 2001 to February 2002 - the accused misled the German embassies in Ukraine and Moldova by organizing fictitious tourist and business trips to the Federal Republic of Germany. They regularly changed the names of companies on whose behalf invitations were issued. Those interested in visas paid about $250 for each such invitation.
In almost all cases, the German diplomatic missions in Kyiv and Chișinău issued visas for entry into the Federal Republic of Germany. At the same time, it was precisely the embassy staff who found it suspicious that an unusually large number of invitations were coming from the same travel agencies. These suspicions helped uncover the illegal activity, noted the prosecutor's office representative.
According to him, the defendants will have the opportunity to respond to the charges. Then the Berlin Regional Court will decide whether to open court hearings, and if the decision is positive, it will set a date for them.