Russian widower gets suspended sentence for loan fraud to bury wife
A court in Vladivostok has handed a suspended sentence to a man who took out a 4 million ruble online loan in his late wife's name to pay for her funeral.
The Pervomaysky District Court found the 48-year-old local resident guilty under Article 272 of the Russian Criminal Code (unauthorized access to computer information) and Part 3 of Article 159 (large-scale fraud).
According to the Telegram channel Primadvokatura, court records show that the man's wife died in 2025, leaving the family without the funds to cover burial expenses. An agent from a private funeral service quoted an estimated cost of around 240,000 rubles. Unable to borrow the money from acquaintances and with his own credit history too poor to secure a loan, the man resorted to using his late wife's salary card.
His wife, who had worked at the post office before her death, held a card with Pochta Bank. Through the bank's online service, the man accessed her account and took out a 400,000-ruble consumer loan in her name. Part of the money went toward funeral and related expenses.
Later, the bank received information that the borrower had already been deceased at the time the loan was issued. After an internal review, the financial institution reported the incident to law enforcement, leading to two criminal cases against the widower—one for unauthorized access to computer information and another for large-scale fraud.
While the court upheld the prosecution's case and convicted the man on both charges, it also acknowledged mitigating circumstances: he had faced severe financial hardship at the time and was the sole provider for two underage children.
He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, suspended.
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