Czech man who collected money "for humanitarian aid" arrested in Ukraine

Police officers in Ukraine have arrested a 44-year-old Czech man who has collected over CZK 3 million allegedly as aid for Ukraine, news site Seznam Zprávy reported on Thursday. The man goes by the nickname Petr Fantom on social media, but his real name is Petr Stoja, and the Czech police have been looking for him since 2019. According to Seznam Zprávy's findings, the man has 46 foreclosures against him and owes a similar amount of money in debts to what he has collected.

In a profile about himself on the For a Free Ukraine website, he writes that he is a Czech living in Ukraine who delivers humanitarian aid to the most dangerous places on the front lines and that he has participated in the evacuation of dozens of people and pets. The website includes several ways to send money to him, but the accounts are under a different name and the final beneficiary of some of them cannot be traced, Seznam Zprávy writes.

He has now been taken into preliminary custody in Ukraine and will later be extradited to the Czech Republic.