Criminal gang exposed for providing false papers that allow THOUSANDS of illegals to work in UK
One member of the criminal network involved boasted how thousands had bought Romanian passports through their service
ROMANIA has been exposed as a lax back door to Britain, where corrupt officials sell EU citizenship for just £1,000.
A bombshell investigation has shown how crooks arrange false papers for Russian, Ukrainian and eastern European nationals so they can work in countries like the UK.
The gang are so brazen they even advertise their services in a Russian-language London newspaper and told one undercover journalist: “It’s almost legal.”
A Romanian passport gives the migrants free access through Europe’s open borders to live and work in this country.
Since movement restrictions on Romanians were lifted in 2014, 350,000 have been given the right to employment in Britain.
One member of the criminal network boasted how thousands had bought Romanian passports through their service.
Led by mastermind Grigory Volkov, the gang arranged false papers for reporter Katerina Kravtsova and gave her a cover story to peddle if challenged.
Volkov has seven citizenships and sat in on her appointment at the Ministry of Justice office in the town of Galati, which lies on the border with Moldova and Ukraine.
‘Everyone in my family will be Romanian soon’
Ms Kravtsova wrote in The Times: “Under the gaze of his henchmen, Grigory Volkov handed out packs of documents to those who had paid to obtain Romanian citizenship illegally and fulfil their dream of a life in Britain, Germany or Italy.
“The frontier town has become a back door to the riches of the European Union.”
She added: “I had travelled to Galati having seen advertisements in Angliya, a Russian newspaper in London, offering ‘legal help to prepare documents for getting Romanian citizenship’.”
London-based fixer Oleg Grishko met Ms Kravtsova, who has no Romanian heritage, in the UK’s capital before arranging her trip to the Eastern European nation.
In hidden camera footage shot in a Pret a Manger, he boasted: “It’s 100 per cent that you will get the citizenship, it’s almost legal.”
He even introduced Ms Kravtsova to a customer who had already successfully obtained a Romanian passport.
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Nadezhda Veleva was recorded saying: “Everyone in our family will be Romanian soon. But I am 100 per cent Ukrainian.”
The scam was based on a law that grants citizenship to people with ancestors from “greater Romania”, an area brought under brutal Stalinist rule during World War Two and now part of Moldova.
A staggering 559,000 people have become Romanians through the rule since 2010.
The scammers simply falsified papers so clients could wrongly claim to have ancestors robbed of Romanian citizenship by the Soviet Union.
Ms Kravtsova flew into Bucharest before taking a five-hour train ride to remote Galati. She was met by another fixer, Ivan Krudu, who talked her through the forged paperwork.
He then drove her to the town’s Ministry of Justice building in his flash BMW — registered in Dublin — and passed her to Volkov.
The reporter wrote in The Times: “The papers showed that instead of being Russian my relatives were born in Taraclia, a region of Moldova that was part of Romania before 1940.
“Inside the ministry building I handed my documents to a chubby official in a flannel shirt. He examined an error in one of the translated documents before saying breezily, ‘stupid’. He asked no questions before explaining why I was entitled to Romanian citizenship.”
The official was recorded telling the journalist: “Nikolai and Maria, your grandparents, were Romanian.
“After the war there was Russian occupation and they were forced not to speak Romanian, so they forgot their roots. And they lost their citizenship without their will.”
Outside, Volkov told her: “Today we’ve made the first step, we’ve applied for Romanian citizenship.
“It will not happen fast because your details have been put on a database and sent out to all the services — Interpol, the police and the Department of Immigration. You will be checked, if you have any criminal history in Romania and the EU.” After a year, Ms Kravtsova’s name was announced on a Romanian Government website, giving her permission to apply for citizenship of the country.
Each week, the website lists around 600 foreigners who have been given the coveted status.
The list of those given the same status but willing to live in Romania ordinarily numbers only ten.
The National Citizenship Authority said it had launched an investigation into the undercover footage recorded by The Times.
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