Moscow police have arrested a 45-year-old woman from Ulyanovsk Oblast who allegedly faked giving birth to claim 120,000 rubles in state payments.
The Ulyanovsk Oblast branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs told news outlet Lenta.ru that investigators opened a criminal case under Article 159.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which penalizes fraud in receiving social benefit payments. Law enforcement authorities placed the suspect under a legal undertaking not to leave her residence and to maintain good behavior.
According to investigators, the woman visited a civil registry office and declared that she had given birth to a baby boy at home. A friend accompanied her to the office and provided witness testimony to confirm the home birth.
Following the registration, the suspect applied to Russia's Social Fund to receive both a lump-sum birth allowance and ongoing monthly child support payments. In total, she collected 120,000 rubles in government welfare funds.
Uncovering the fraud scheme
An official verification subsequently established that the woman had never given birth to a child. Investigators found that she had shown her own newborn grandson to the witness to convince her that a baby had been born. Realizing that authorities would expose the deception, the suspect fled her home region and traveled to Moscow.
The civil registry office, known in Russia as ZAGS, is the official government agency responsible for recording vital statistics, including births and marriages. Under Russian regulations, home births without medical personnel present require third-party witness confirmation for registration.
The Social Fund of Russia, known as Sotsfond, is the national agency that manages state welfare, pensions, and family allowances. Ulyanovsk Oblast is a federal region situated along the Volga River in western Russia, located roughly 500 miles east of Moscow.
Related welfare fraud cases
The arrest follows a separate welfare fraud investigation in Russia's Bryansk Oblast. In that case, a court placed the widow of a Russian soldier killed in the special military operation under house arrest over allegations of a multi-million ruble financial scam.
