Lawsuits | A group of swindlers convinced a wealthy man that he was a mafia leader – the Court of Appeal increased the sentences

Vaasa the court of appeal slightly increased the sentence in a very unusual case where a group of young men tricked an alcoholic, wealthy former business executive into believing he was some kind of mafia boss.

It stated that the district court of Ostrobothnia had handed down sentences that were too lenient in the case.

The former company manager told the Court of Appeal that he drank up to a liter of clear liquor every day, which the group of men also constantly brought him. He said that he had been “completely out of this world” for weeks. He had assets because he had previously sold his business.

The Court of Appeal also considered that the man had believed that he had acted as the leader of a violent criminal organization, on whose orders people had been beaten, kidnapped and killed.

According to it, the man’s perception of reality could justifiably be characterized as delusional, which was affected by the actions of the men on the charge. It considered that among the perpetrators, three men in particular contributed to and maintained the victim’s perception of reality for more than a year. The victim’s heavy alcohol consumption also helped.

He believed he was a crime boss who killed people until a police investigator picked him up from the hospital and told him no one had been killed. He had believed that he had done “no matter how bad” because that was what he had been told and presented with artificial corpses.

The Court of Appeal sentenced as the main perpetrators of Elvidon Dogan to two years and two months in prison for, among other things, aggravated extortion and aggravated fraud.

Nima Jatranmiyandoab received two years and ten months in prison for, among other things, aggravated fraud and aggravated extortion.

Sina Jatranmiyandoab received two years and six months in prison for, among other things, aggravated fraud and extortion. In Vyyhti, many others were sentenced for lesser crimes.

Convicted tricked the man in many, imaginative ways.

For example, in one case, the men who came to his house pretended to strangle, which resulted in a “dead” man on the floor. Next came a man in a leather jacket who said he would cut the body into pieces and take it to Siberia to be eaten by wolves. The victim paid 50,000 euros for this. He was also shown another bloody “corpse” on the cell phone screen.

The Court of Appeal stated that the trio was the initiator, a key player in fraud and extortion crimes, with which they got the victim to hand over tens of thousands of euros to them. They planned and acted out staged situations with the aim of making the victim believe that he was leading a criminal organization and could order his subordinates to kill individuals.

According to the court of appeals, the plans contained complex and elaborate backstories, which also required the recruitment of other persons as accomplices.

They took advantage of the victim’s trust and alcohol addiction, as well as the resulting poor health and delusions about reality, the court stated. They created a fantasy world for the man, which the victim thought was real.