In the Rostov region, the activities of a criminal community of police officers who have been receiving bribes from merchants working in the consumer market for eight years have been uncovered. More than 20 former and current employees of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the region are suspected of being paid from 3 thousand to 50 thousand rubles. per month, entrepreneurs were not held accountable for violations. As part of the initiated cases of organizing a criminal community and bribery, operatives conducted about 85 searches in the offices and homes of suspects.
The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia (GSU ICR) for the North Caucasian Federal District opened a criminal case on the organization of a criminal community and participation in a criminal community, as well as on taking bribes (part 1, part 2, part 3 of article 210, part 6 article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) in relation to former and current employees of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Rostov Region. More than 20 people became suspects in the case.
According to the investigation, the criminal community has been operating in Rostov-on-Don from July 2015 to the present. Its alleged leader is Dmitry Rybalko, former deputy chief of police for public order protection of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for Rostov-on-Don. Among the possible participants are also named Alexey Abakumov, Nikolay Shchitov, Sergey Lyapkin and Sergey Sungurtyan.
The press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Rostov Region refused to clarify the positions and titles of the defendants. On the department’s website, Alexei Abakumov, in a 2021 publication, is named the head of police department No. 8 of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for Rostov-on-Don, the rest of the listed suspects are not mentioned.
As stated in the case file, the participants of the organization received bribes for not bringing to administrative and other liability persons engaged in trade in the consumer market.
“The head of the criminal community set the minimum amount of money from 3 thousand rubles. up to 50 thousand rubles per month, which the heads of the structural divisions of the criminal community received from entrepreneurs and transferred to Rybalko at the end of each month, ”the press service of the ICR said.
The amount of payment depended on the number of retail premises. It is assumed that the total amount of bribes received amounted to 25 million rubles.
The investigators of the TFR were able to establish the circumstances of the crimes in cooperation with the units of the FSB of Russia and the Main Directorate of Internal Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.
“85 searches were carried out at workplaces, as well as at the places of residence and registration of defendants. Large amounts of money, items and documents of probative value were seized,” said Irina Volk, official representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
It should be noted that last week a series of operational measures against representatives of the judiciary took place in the Rostov region. According to local media, a team of FSB, MVD and TFR officers conducted searches and seizures of documents in the offices of three dozen judges working in the Rostov Regional, Oktyabrsky, Zheleznodorozhny, Kirovsky and Sovetsky courts of Rostov-on-Don, as well as in the courts of the Volgodonsk district, Mines and Kamensk-Shakhtinsky. Later it became known that the High Qualification Board of Judges of Russia accepted the resignation of the chairman of the Rostov Regional Court, Elena Zolotareva. According to Kommersant, she may soon become a defendant in a criminal case.
