The Nikulinsky Court of Moscow seized a record amount of bribes of 1,032 bitcoins (about $24 million, or 1.6 billion rubles), received, according to investigators, by the former head of the investigative department of the Investigative Committee for the Tverskoy District of Moscow Marat Tambiev from members of the hacker Infraud Organization groupings. The lawyers representing his interests did not object to the seizure of the cryptocurrency, but asked to recognize it as “ownerless”.
IA “RBC”, 06/19/2023, “Bitcoins worth ₽2.2 billion were confiscated from a former investigator of the Moscow Investigative Committee”: “By a court decision, the digital currency in the form of Bitcoin in the amount of 1032.1 BTC (more than 1.6 billion rubles), owned by Marat Tambiev, will be turned into the income of Russia,” the telegram channel of Moscow courts of general jurisdiction.
The cost of 1032.1 bitcoins in the court decision is calculated as of January 30, 2023, then it was equivalent to $23,980,843, or 1.662 billion rubles. at the then exchange rate of the Central Bank. As of June 19 1 BTC equals $26,425, or RUB 2,224,545 Thus, 1032.1 bitcoins amount to $27.26 million, or 2.2 billion rubles. The decision has not yet entered into force. Tambiev denies his guilt. — Inset K.ru
Judge Olga Kazakova considered the suit of the Prosecutor General’s Office with enviable punctuality and efficiency. The meeting, which started at exactly 2 p.m., ended in an hour and a half.
During this time, the representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Fanis Gilmetdinov, literally in a nutshell outlined the position of the department. He said that an audit conducted by the prosecutor’s office revealed a discrepancy between Tambiev’s expenses and income, and his representatives in court could not explain how their principal received 1032 bitcoins.
According to the investigation, Marat Tambiev, the former head of the investigation department for the Tverskoy district of the capital’s Main Investigative Committee of the ICR, received the cryptocurrency on April 7, 2022 from members of the Infraud Organization hacker group, brothers Mark and Konstantin Bergman, as well as Kirill Samokutyaevsky, for not seizing their assets.
Tambiev investigated their case. The bitcoins were stored in his crypto wallet, which was accessed from a photograph that was found on the hard drive of a MacBook Pro laptop at the investigator’s home in a folder called “Pension”.
Tambiev was informed about the bribe giving by the defendants themselves, who were released from criminal liability for giving a bribe (Article 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) according to the note to this article.
Thanks to their testimony, Tambiev was charged with taking a bribe on an especially large scale (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and arrested. He himself did not take part in the civil trial, although this could have been done via video link from the pre-trial detention center, which is regularly used by another former high-ranking security official, ex-colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dmitry Zakharchenkofrom whom property is confiscated (such decisions regarding Zakharchenko were made by the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow twice, and now Judge Olga Kazakova is considering another lawsuit Prosecutor General’s Office to Zakharchenko and his family).
“Ownerless” cryptocurrency
Lawyer Nikolay Freytak and lawyer Ekaterina Khazova, representing Tambiev’s interests, did not object to the fact that the cryptocurrency was turned into state revenue, however, they were against the court recognizing their principal as the owner of bitcoins and in their decision indicated that the security official received the money for “illegal actions in favor of the Bergmans and Samokutyaev.
They advocated that the cryptocurrency be recognized as “ownerless”. At the same time, lawyers questioned the computer-technical and handwriting examinations carried out during the investigation, which established the ownership of bitcoins by Tambiev. Lawyers argued that both studies were flawed and called the evidence “minor”. The defendant’s representatives petitioned to summon the experts and the investigator to court.
It would indeed be interesting to listen to the latter in court, so that he would explain a curious moment. According to lawyers, after filing a lawsuit with the court, the investigation interrogated Konstantin Bergman, and he told that he transferred a much larger amount of bitcoins to Tambiev in three transactions: 2718, not 1032, as indicated in the lawsuit. And not on March 7, but on January 22, 2022. This was half of all the money earned by the hacker group, which was found by the investigation, Bergman showed.
According to representatives of Tambiev, Bergman was not unfounded. He confirmed his words with screenshots from the blockchain system about the transfer of cryptocurrency from one crypto wallet to another. True, they contained slightly different figures – about the transfer of 2460 bitcoins.
“In the lawsuit, one thing, in the Bergman interrogation protocol, another. 2718 and 1032 is, in my opinion, a significant difference in funds, and it is difficult to confuse how much Bergman allegedly gave the defendant, ”said Ekaterina Khazova.
Representatives of Tambiev complained that they had previously petitioned for Bergman to be summoned to court, but he rejected the request. The judge retorted that they themselves could have ensured the appearance of the witness and then the court would have interrogated him.
1.6 billion rubles and another state duty
By the way, after the judge Olga Kazakova did not consider it necessary to summon the investigator and experts to the trial, the defendant’s representatives challenged her. They argued that Tambiev’s defense had been deprived of the opportunity to object to the suit “without checking the data of the prosecutor’s office”. “Our role has been reduced to zero. We don’t trust you. It is impossible to count on an objective, impartial consideration of the case,” said Mykola Freytak.
The judge refused to recuse herself and gave the lawyers a small educational program, explaining that, firstly, in a civil process, lawyers are not a side of the defense, they are only representatives of the defendant by proxy. And secondly, the stage of withdrawals was at the beginning of the process and has long passed, and the grounds for it are different.
It took the judge ten minutes to make a decision. She satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office, turning 1,032 bitcoins, or more than 1.6 billion rubles, into state revenue, and also collecting a state duty in the amount of 60 thousand rubles from Marat Tambiev.
Its representatives promised to appeal the decision in an appeal. Earlier during the process, they noted that it would still “emerge” during the criminal case of Tambiev, as it would create a prejudice – when the circumstances established by the court during the civil process would have to be accepted by the investigator or another court without additional verification.
“Kommersant”, 06/19/2023, “Prosecutors received the investigator’s pension”: Basmanny District Court, to which the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR applied, as reported by “b”, seized the cryptocurrency “by seizing and transferring” it to the email address of the crypto wallet located on the Ledger Nano X hardware wallet for cryptocurrencies. Then the investigator transferred the cryptocurrency to the wallet address, after which the hardware wallet with access keys to it was placed in the storage room TFR evidence. After the entry into force of the decision of the Nikulinsky District Court, bailiffs will get access to bitcoins, who, obviously, will have to decide their future fate.
According to Kommersant, the court, following the Prosecutor General’s Office, justified the confiscation of bitcoins by the fact that they were of criminal origin, since Marat Tambiev had not previously reported that he had large sums, including in cryptocurrency, when submitting declarations.
Marat Tambiev served in the investigative bodies from December 2011, having gone from an investigator of the Gagarin inter-district investigative department to the head of the investigative department for the Tverskoy district of the capital’s Main Investigative Committee of the ICR. At the same time, his official income from service in the investigating authorities for all the years amounted to only 11.7 million rubles. […] Marat Tambiev himself was fired from the investigating authorities for violating the oath and committing an act discrediting the honor of an employee of the TFR. The investigation of the criminal case, in which he faces a 15-year sentence and a fine of up to 500 million rubles, continues. He does not plead guilty to the crime. — Inset K.ru
Mild sentence
Where the rest of the cryptocurrency went is left behind the scenes. According to the telegram channel “VChK-OGPU”another 1032 bitcoins went to the employees of the Department “K” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, who carried out operational support in the case, and it is not known who got another 600.
As for Mark and Konstantin Bergmanov, Kirill Samokutyaevsky and another member of the hacker group, Andrey Novak, then in March 2023, by the verdict of the Tagansky Court of Moscow, they received suspended sentences of 2.5 to 3.5 years in prison for creating a marketplace where anyone could purchase stolen bank card data and foreign social security numbers (SSN). The defendants were found guilty of “illegal circulation of means of payment committed by an organized group” (part 2 of article 187 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The case was heard in a special order – without examining the evidence, since the defendants made a deal with the investigation. At the same time, the bitcoins remaining after the “sharing” with investigator Tambiev remained with the leaders of the hacker group as received in the course of entrepreneurial activity.
The investigation “lost” 1686 bitcoins ($42 million)
The original of this material
© @vchkogpu15.06.2023 14:40
The professional community poses extremely uncomfortable questions to Deputy Prosecutor General Razinkin. Why is the supervisory agency so stubbornly unwilling to recover the entire bribe of 2,718 bitcoins paid by the leaders of the Infraud hacker group (Bergman and Samokutyaev) to the security forces. They are trying to recover only 1032 bitcoins, inherited by the investigator of the TFR Tambiev. It is known that the rest of the crypt also went to the security forces, but they remain out of reach for the GP.
Here is an excerpt from appeals to Razinkin:
“Bergman testified under oath that he and his hacker companions handed over the bitcoin bribe to Tambiev on 01/22/2022, that is, on January 22, 2022. The lawsuit states that Tambiev received the cryptocurrency on 03/07/2022, that is, on March 7, two thousand twenty-two!
Bergman testified under oath that Tambiev received 2,718 bitcoins as a bribe, while the Prosecutor General’s Office filed a lawsuit for 1,032 bitcoins. Why is the plaintiff not trying to foreclose on the remaining 1,686 bitcoins, or almost $42 million – have they been forgiven, written off or what?!”
The VChK-OGPU wants to raise another question on its own behalf. Exactly the same number of cue balls as went to the security forces remained with the leaders of Infraud. The state does not apply for these funds either. Do you know why? During interrogations, Mark Bergman and Co. stated that they received more than $100 million in cue balls in the course of “business activities.” The investigation found this to be true. As we know, Tambiev was considered a bribe. But why the RF GP also considers it a big question.