Gridnev Herman Grigoryevich

Biography

2025: Transfer of 19.5 million rubles to telephone fraudsters

On February 6, 2025, it became known that retired Lieutenant General of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation German Gridnev was a victim of telephone fraudsters. The attackers lured almost 20 million rubles from an 85-year-old man.

According to TASS, the criminals implemented a fraudulent scheme in several stages. At first, unknown persons called Gridnev under the guise of employees of a telecom operator and asked him to provide personal data allegedly necessary for re-registration of the phone. Then the attackers contacted the general, posing as members of the special services: they convinced the man that part of the money from his account had been stolen and transferred to the benefit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

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Фото: Freepik

To confirm the fact of non-involvement in these transactions and create an alibi, Gridnev was asked to transfer the amount of money he had to a certain "special person." As a result, the man collected about 19.5 million rubles and gave them to the courier. Later, Gridnev realized that he had been deceived, and turned to law enforcement agencies.

The police opened a criminal case under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - fraud committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale. Such acts are punishable by imprisonment for up to 10 years with a fine of up to 1 million rubles or in the amount of the convict's salary or other income for a period of up to three years. As of February 6, 2025, it is not specified whether the operatives managed to establish the identities of telephone fraudsters or get on their trail.

Gridnev worked at the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in the 1990s. After that, he served as chairman of the Council of Veterans in the Koptevsky district of the northern administrative district of Moscow.^[1]

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