Investigators from the Investigative Committee will be tried on charges of bribes that are record-breaking for Russia. The suspects received money in bitcoins
The former head of the investigative department of the Investigative Committee for the Tverskoy district of Moscow , 35-year-old justice major Marat Tambiev, is accused of ten counts of accepting bribes in the amount of more than one and a half million dollars and 2,718 bitcoins (about 7.3 billion rubles).
This case is called the largest bribery case in Russian history. Now it has reached the court. In addition, according to investigators, Tambiev tried to enrich himself by another $1.3 million. He is also accused of abuse of power.
The investigators' accomplice surrendered and told the details
According to the Investigative Committee, the accomplice of the major of justice was an ex-investigator, senior lieutenant, 27-year-old Kristina Lyakhovenko. She is charged with one bribe, abuse of power and falsification of evidence in a criminal case. The actions of both defendants “discredited the legal activities of the state in the fight against crime,” investigators believe.
The case was initiated at the request of hacker Mark Bergman. The case was based on testimony against investigator Tambiev, given by lawyer Roman Meyer. He filed a confession. According to investigators, Meyer, under the guise of providing legal assistance, extorted money from his clients - hackers Mark and Konstantin Bergman and Estonian citizen Kirill Samokutyaev. Hackers supervised a marketplace on the darknet where they sold bank card information and social security numbers. For Meyer, the hackers allocated a separate office in their premises in Moscow City.
Meyer met the accused Tambiev through his father’s neighbor in the country. This acquaintance came in handy when, in June 2020, five people disguised as FSB officers , led by the real Ministry of Internal Affairs Colonel Yaroslav Sukovitsyn, broke into Bergman’s apartment: they took money and valuables worth five million rubles. Meyer asked Tambiev for help, and the major assisted in opening a robbery case. As gratitude for his help, Tambiev received 500 thousand rubles.
The accused received bribes as salary
As Kommersant writes , Tambiev’s receipt of bribes through Meyer “was literally put on stream.” During the development of the robbery case, the investigator received another 2.5 million rubles. Then he received another 250 thousand dollars (22.5 million rubles) for covering up the hacking activities of Meyer’s clients. Later, Tambiev received another 350 thousand dollars (31.5 million rubles) for providing Bergman with state protection, as well as for the detention and arrest of his cousin Sultan Gasambekov.
In 2021, hackers themselves will become defendants in a criminal case for creating an illegal marketplace. However, Tambiev helped them here too. Their case was taken up by investigator Kristina Lyakhovenko. Tambiev was already her immediate superior. For electing house arrest to the hackers instead of imprisonment, the accused gave the major bribes in the amount of 590 thousand dollars (53.2 million rubles) and 750 thousand rubles.
Investigators did not admit their guilt
Crypto wallets with an amount of 5212.9 bitcoins were found on flash drives seized from hackers during searches. Now one bitcoin costs more than six million rubles. Tambiev did not seize the electronic money and instead proposed dividing it between his deputy Dmitry Gubin , who is now wanted, and investigator Lyakhovenko. Bitcoins were found on Tambiev’s computer in a folder called “Pension”. The investigation claims that Tambiev will demand bribes from the accused more than once.
Tambiev does not admit his guilt and claims that Meyer slandered him in order to soften his sentence. According to the former investigator, the lawyer himself embezzled clients’ money. At the same time, the investigation really did not find large sums of cash or expensive property on the security officer. The major's defense suggests that the investigation placed too much faith in Meyer's testimony. Lyakhovenko also did not admit her guilt.
The case of Tambiev and Lyakhovenko will be considered by the court in Balashikha near Moscow in June. Initially, it was assumed that the trial would take place in Moscow, but the Supreme Court changed the territorial jurisdiction at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, agreeing with the arguments that Tambiev, during his work, acquired connections in the capital's judiciary. Hearings may be held behind closed doors.