The son of Perm's wealthiest lawmaker has been accused of working for a Ukrainian call center that defrauded Russians
In Perm, Russia, the 20-year-old son of a city council member has been detained on suspicion of working as a courier in a telephone fraud scheme. According to investigators, he collected money from victims and handed it over to the organizers. He is currently under investigation and has admitted his guilt, according to Russian media reports.
The son of one of the wealthiest members of the Perm City Duma, Vladimir Plotnikov, has become the focus of a criminal investigation on suspicion of involvement in a fraud scheme. The individual in question is his 20-year-old son, Peter Plotnikov, who, according to investigators, served as a courier for a network of telephone scammers.
According to investigators, the group operated via phone calls, deceiving people, mostly the elderly. Afterward, Plotnikov would visit the victims, collect large sums of cash from them, and transfer the funds to the organizers, keeping a portion for himself as a reward. Petra Plotnikov was arrested in February 2026 during another trip to collect money. Initially, a court in Perm ordered him to be held in custody, but he was later placed under house arrest until mid-May.
During the court proceedings, he pleaded guilty. According to sources, the family has already begun compensating the victims for their losses. At the same time, neither the defendant’s father nor police representatives are publicly commenting on the situation.
The investigation is ongoing, and investigators are determining the full scope of the scheme and identifying other possible participants who may have been involved in organizing the fraud.
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