How lawyer Alexander Tsyupko extorted 3.7 billion rubles under the “roof” of security officers. for overturning the sentence of a businessman who squeezed 25 billion rubles from IKEA.

Prisoner Ponomarev was persuaded by caviar and punishment cell

The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee is investigating a criminal case consisting of several episodes, the suspects in which are ex-FSB and Investigative Committee officers who tried to get money from a businessman Konstantin Ponomarev RUB 3.7 billion for the reversal of a sentence, parole and removal of arrest from accounts. This was reported to RBC by a source familiar with the progress of the investigation, the information was confirmed by another source familiar with the case materials. According to RBC interlocutors, FSB officers arrested in November 2023 in the Merlion case are being checked for connections with Ponomarev’s extortion case.

Who is detained in the Merlion case?

Then, in the case of taking a bribe in PFor receiving a bribe in the amount of 5 billion rubles, connected with the Merlion company, two employees of the FSB “M” department, Sergei Manyshkin and Alexey Tsarev, were detained, along with another intelligence officer, Alexander Ushakov. They made a plea deal and testified against their accomplices. They are currently under house arrest. Also, the former head of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee for the North-Western District of Moscow was detained in the case of extortion from Merlion management. Sergei Romodanovsky (son of the ex-head of the FMS Konstantin Romodanovsky), investigator Andrei Zheryutin and head of the Khoroshevsky investigative department Rustam Yusupov. According to IzvestiaRomodanovsky entered into a pre-trial agreement and testified against other persons.

The Basmanny Court arrested the detained security officials on charges of committing a number of crimes, including organizing a criminal community using their official position or participating in it (Article 210 of the Criminal Code), as well as receiving bribes on an especially large scale (Article 290 of the Criminal Code) .

Alexey Nesnov, investigator of the Investigation Department for the North-West Administrative District of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) in Moscow, is also involved in the case. He investigated the case of an “attempt” on the ex-CEO of the distributor of IT and household appliances Merlion Vyacheslava Simonenko. Nesnov was arrested in absentia and put on the international wanted list.

In 2023, the Investigative Committee reported that a criminal community organized by a businessman was operating against the owners of Merlion Vitaly Kachur With son Kirill, a former investigator. Other participants in the criminal community were Nesnov, Simonenko, senior inspector of the 8th department of personnel management of the Investigative Committee Alexander Kireev and “other persons.”

Now, according to RBC’s interlocutors, the arrested FSB officers are being checked for involvement in extortion from businessman Konstantin Ponomarev, well known in the courts with IKEA.

Lawyer and Ponomarev’s billions

In 2019, the Lyubertsy City Court sentenced the owner of the Autonomous Power Supply Systems company, Ponomarev, to eight years in prison for knowingly false denunciation. The entrepreneur is known for the fact that in 2010, through the court, he obtained a payment of 25 billion rubles from the Russian structures of the Swedish concern IKEA. according to the settlement agreement. This was arrears for the rental of electric generators installed in the stores. Subsequently, the businessman demanded another 33 billion rubles from the company, but the court rejected these claims. Ponomarev also sued IKEA for another 507 million rubles. (the Supreme Court subsequently overturned this decision) and secured the arrest of 9.3 billion rubles belonging to the corporation (the arrest was eventually lifted). In the same year, the Solnechnogorsk court of the Moscow region sentenced Ponomarev to more than ten years in prison in the case of tax evasion and attempted theft. The court recovered from him unpaid taxes amounting to approximately 12 billion rubles. and confiscated 11 electric generators.

When Ponomarev was already in custody, lawyer Alexander Tsyupko tried to persuade him to give money for his release and termination of the case, RBC sources say. The case against Tsyupko, at that time he was a member of the Tula Regional Bar Association, was initiated by the investigative department of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee for the Smolensk region in March 2022 on the basis of attempted theft by fraud (part 3 of article 30, part 4 of article 159 UK). His appearance was preceded by operational activities by employees of the regional department of the FSB, which took place at the request of Ponomarev.

At that time, the businessman was in one of the regional pre-trial detention centers, and Tsyupko came to see him there. The case file states that the lawyer, “acting as part of a group of persons by prior conspiracy,” informed Ponomarev that he had the necessary competence and business connections in law enforcement agencies, with the help of which he promised the businessman to appeal his sentence on appeal, and guaranteed its cancellation , returning the case to the prosecutor and releasing Ponomarev on bail. Tsyupko also promised to withdraw the claims that, according to him, were brought against the businessman by Rosseti-Kuban PJSC, and the seizure imposed by the court from his bank accounts. For this, the lawyer tried to get 3.7 billion rubles from Ponomarev, but was arrested.

The participants in the attempted fraud were detained at the end of March 2022; in October, the court sentenced Tsyupko to 3.6 years in prison. But in January 2023, the first deputy head of the Investigative Committee, Eduard Kaburneev, transferred the case to the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee due to the fact that its participants are persons to whom a special procedure for criminal proceedings applies.

In February 2023, the head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee, Lieutenant General of Justice Denis Kolesnikov, decided to initiate another case against Tsyupko for attempted fraud (Part 3 of Article 30, Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code). The investigation learned that the attackers stole 100 million rubles from Ponomarev, which they promised to pledge for the businessman’s release.

Both cases were combined and transferred to the investigator for particularly important cases, Maxim Mayboroda. He specializes in investigating crimes committed by officials. According to RBC’s interlocutors, an investigation team was created from among employees of the third investigative department of the department for the investigation of crimes committed by law enforcement officials.

In April 2023, the investigator opened another case, in which former FSB and Investigative Committee officer Aleksey Silverstov, former FSB officer Alexander Kireev, his relative Stanislav Mitrofanov and unidentified persons were already present.

In 2024, all the episodes were combined into a single production, and, according to the source, FSB officers arrested in the Merlion case also appeared in one large criminal case. Investigators found overlap between the activities of this group and the employees of the FSB “M” department detained in the Merlion case.

RBC sent a request to the press service of the Investigative Committee and the FSB Public Relations Center.

Punishment cell and red caviar

The case file states that Alexey Silverstov graduated from the FSB Academy, then worked in the economic intelligence department of the central apparatus of the service, and in 1999, after its disbandment, until 2017 he served in the “M” department of the FSB. From June 2021 to November 2022, he worked as a security assistant to the head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for the Moscow Region. According to RBC’s interlocutor, Silverstov was dismissed from service with the rank of colonel.

The case materials also note that Silverstov was friends with Alexander Kireev. They worked together in the central office of the FSB, and then in the “K” department of the FSB Economic Security Service.

According to investigators, lawyer Tsyupko and Mitrofanov turned to Silverstov for help in contacts with the penitentiary service, since during his work in the FSB and the Investigative Committee he acquired good connections in this department.

According to the source, according to the case materials, using their contacts, the lawyer and his comrades tried to manipulate Ponomarev. To force him to cooperate, they created problems for him in the pre-trial detention center, and then allowed relaxations in the detention regime. So they ensured that Ponomarev was given unjustified disciplinary sanctions and was transferred to a punishment cell, solitary confinement.

The case file notes that on the day Ponomarev turned 50, he was transferred from the Matrosskaya Tishina detention center hospital to correctional colony No. 3 in the Smolensk region. This was preceded by a meeting between the businessman and the lawyer, at which he refused to cooperate with him. At moments of “thaw” in relations, the accused, through their people, transferred personal belongings and food to Ponomarev. For example, during one of these periods, a businessman in the colony was given a cake, red caviar and new clothes.

During Tsyupko’s visits to the colony, the lawyer constantly referred to “curators from the FSB,” Ponomarev’s testimony says, RBC’s interlocutor says.

After several problematic situations in the colony, the businessman told the lawyer that he was ready to cooperate. At the same time, he contacted the FSB Directorate for the Smolensk Region and agreed to an operational experiment.

The amount that the lawyer requested for solving Ponomarev’s problems (3.7 billion rubles) was agreed to be transferred in installments. In March 2022, Tsyupko signed a civil agreement with Ponomarev in a pre-trial detention center in the Smolensk region for the transfer of 1.3 billion rubles from his bank accounts, a source told RBC. A notarized power of attorney was issued to manage the money. Immediately after signing the documents at the exit from the colony, the lawyer was detained by FSB officers.