Former and current police officers are accused of patronizing underground casinos.
In Novosibirsk, a court arrested current and former employees of the anti-corruption unit of the city Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for two months. According to preliminary data, Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Khomin, who previously held the post boss Department for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption (OEBiPK), and three of his subordinates patronized the shadow gambling business, receiving bribes from the organizers of a network of gaming clubs. The lawyers asked to limit themselves to house arrest, but they were refused.
Today, the Central District Court of Novosibirsk placed current and former anti-corruption fighters in custody for two months (until November 20). According to information from the department of the judicial department in the region, the ex-head of the Department of Economic Safety and Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the city Andrei Khomin, who left this post in March 2023, the deputy head of this department Dmitry Shilo, the head of the Department of Economic Security and Commissariat for the Zaeltsovsky district Maxim Abramov and the ex-head of the Department of Economic Security and Commissariat for the Leninsky District went to the pre-trial detention center Denis Fetisov.
Court hearings to select a preventive measure at the request of the investigation were held closed to the media. “The preliminary investigation is in an active phase,” said Maxim Salos, a representative of the fifth investigative department of the ICR. “We cannot allow the disclosure of details that could harm the investigation.”
After the trial, it became known that the need to keep the security forces in a pre-trial detention center was motivated by the fact that they could hide, put pressure on witnesses, and destroy evidence that had not yet been confiscated. Defense lawyers insisted on house arrest for their clients, but this was denied. The Investigative Committee does not comment on the investigation.
Current and former anti-corruption fighters are charged with bribery (Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). It is unknown whether they admitted guilt.
A Kommersant source said that the arrests carried out by the FSB were related to the investigation of a criminal case about a network of illegal casinos in Novosibirsk, which was allegedly patronized by the police.
The first arrests were made in December 2022. Alexander Umerov, head of the Department of Economic Security and Combating of the Central Regional Police Department, was arrested on suspicion of bribery. The policeman, the briber and the intermediaries in the transfer of money were detained by operatives of the Main Directorate of Internal Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, sent to Novosibirsk.
According to the department, the organizer of a network of underground casinos, numbering five establishments, paid from 500 thousand to 1 million rubles monthly through a chain of intermediaries. to an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for patronizing a business and failing to carry out inspection activities.
The Novosibirsk court considered a similar case in February 2020. He sentenced him to eight years in prison and a fine of over 3 million rubles. former employee of the local police department Mikhail Latysh. As indicated in the investigation materials, the anti-bribery activist warned the organizer of a network of underground casinos about planned raids by security forces, and he paid the policeman 100 thousand rubles monthly. from each gaming club. Initially, bribes were transferred through a chain of intermediaries. Subsequently, according to the investigation, the policeman received money under a fictitious loan agreement, and the amount of the bribe to the operative for patronage amounted to about 1.5 million rubles.
