An entrepreneur selling counterfeit agricultural equipment was apprehended in Kyiv

Cyberpolice officers, in collaboration with Kyiv police investigators, have uncovered the illegal activities of a 42-year-old Kyiv resident who organized a scheme to defraud buyers. The suspect was selling substandard gardening and agricultural equipment under the guise of products from well-known global brands.

This was reported by the Cyber Police.

The investigation established that the suspect had created a specialized online store selling goods for gardens and vegetable plots. To attract as many customers as possible, he launched advertising campaigns in which he positioned his product range as exclusively genuine goods from leading foreign manufacturers. In his communications with buyers, the entrepreneur assured them of the equipment’s high reliability, impeccable quality, and durability.

In reality, however, the scheme worked as follows:

• Product substitution: after placing an order and making payment, customers received entirely different equipment of inferior origin by mail, which did not meet the stated technical specifications and had no connection to well-known brands.

• Lack of documentation: the suspect deliberately did not include sales receipts or warranty cards with the packages. This deprived the defrauded customers of the legal right to return the goods or contact service centers.

To date, law enforcement officials have officially established the entrepreneur’s involvement in defrauding 12 citizens, who suffered losses totaling approximately 240,000 hryvnias. Kyiv police investigators have already notified the suspect of his involvement in fraudulent activities, and the pre-trial investigation is ongoing.

Previously, law enforcement seized nearly 14.4 million packs of cigarettes. From these alone, over 706 million hryvnias in taxes were not paid to the budget.

In the Ternopil region, a criminal group was exposed that was manufacturing household chemicals under the labels of well-known brands. The “business” was organized by a resident of the Chortkiv district.