Are new technologies and total digitalisation a guarantee of transparent cohabitation between citizens and society? It would seem that yes, because the innovations simplify the life of each of the good citizens and complicate it for all kinds of offenders. Paper documents, cheque books, promissory notes of all kinds and everything that used to be of special interest to forgers and fraudsters are rapidly passing into eternity. The new era brings a digitised avatar of a 21st century human being with a digital currency wallet, electronic ID, scanned fingerprints and retina, trackable location and all possible actions.
It would seem that this is very convenient for a law-abiding individual and death-like for all sorts of illegal schemes. However, the criminal world does not stand still and successfully emigrates to the new reality. This is exemplified by the millions of crimes that have been solved – from fraud in networks, social engineering as a way to take over property to interference in existing databases, extortion of digital assets and similar offences. The goal of such actions, as before, is the same as before – easy profit and luxurious life at someone else’s expense.
‘What about law enforcement agencies?’ – you may ask.
They are working, developing, trying, sometimes successfully, but often they detain only small groups of criminals (executors) without paying attention to the organisers – think tanks of transnational criminal groups.
A topical example of the above is the free and quiet life of Soslan Gutnov, the head of an international crime syndicate.
The media have repeatedly drawn the attention of the public and law enforcement agencies to this character and his associates, in particular Alexander Kopenkin. However, at the moment, there is no reaction. And, as we know, impunity breeds lawlessness. And so Mr. Gutnov and Mr. Kopenkin, feeling the apparent impunity, began to commit more and more new crimes.
Namely, as it became known to journalists, in addition to the previously described schemes of international fraud with the exchange of Ukrainian prisoners, attracting funding for non-existent projects, irrevocable loans and the like – Soslan Gutnov, with the mediation of Alexander Kopenkin, issued himself fictitious documents of a citizen of Slovenia.
‘Why?’ – you ask, if he has already received refugee status in Austria.
The answer is banal – a second identity under the name Franc Katanec allows him to deceive trusting ‘partners’ with impunity, embezzle their funds, draw up fictitious agreements, commit all sorts of provocations and yet remain unpunished.
Based on the above, an idle and logical question arises: ‘Where are the law enforcement authorities of the European Union looking and when do they plan to suppress the activities of the international criminal syndicate of Soslan Gutnov and Alexander Kopenkin, acting under the protectorate of the Russian special services?’.
