The investigation of Melion's IT distributor continues. Its defendants were FSB officers-they were taken into custody for suspicion of extortion of billions of rubles.
Potential involvement of law enforcement agencies
The investigation of the case of Merlion IT distributor, related to the arrest of its co-founders in 2020, continues, and over time, the number of its defendants increases. According to RBC, citing people familiar with the investigation, the list now includes several employees of the Federal Security Service of Russia.
According to the publication, we are talking about employees of one of the departments of the department who oversaw the activities of law enforcement agencies. Their names and surnames, as well as their numbers, were not disclosed, but all of them were taken into custody amid suspicion of extortion of money on a particularly large scale.
According to publicly available information, the security forces are suspected of extorting 5 billion rubles directly from the management of Merlion. In exchange for this amount, they promised to stop investigative actions, according to one of the interlocutors of the publication.
First details
At the time of the publication of the material, it was known that all the security forces were arrested in the week from November 6 to November 12, 2023. According to the source, Sergei Romodanovsky, the former head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia (SU TFR) for the North – Western District of Moscow, was also in custody with them.
A similar fate befell the investigator of the same SU TFR Andrey Zheryutin. Along with him, the head of the Khoroshevsky investigative department of the same SU TFR Rustam Yusupov was also detained.
On November 17, 2023, according to the Telegram channel of the CHEKA-OGPU, a series of searches took place in the building of the FSB department for Moscow and the Moscow region. Whether there is a connection between them and the arrest of security forces last week, at the time of publication of the material was not reliably known.
According to RBC, the arrest of all the listed employees of the Investigative Committee took place on November 10, 2023 by the decision of the Basmanny Court of Moscow. They are accused of committing an impressive list of crimes, including violation of Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organizing a criminal community using their official position or participating in it) and Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (receiving a bribe on a particularly large scale).
Separately, it should be noted that Sergei Romodanovsky, who is the son of the former head of the Federal Migration Service of Russia, General Konstantin Romodanovsky, and Rustam Yusupov were detained with the support of the FSB.
An incredible twist
Alexey Nesnov, a former subordinate of Sergei Romodanovsky, is also being investigated in the case. He was assigned to investigate the case of an "attempt" on the former CEO of Merlion Vyacheslav Simonenko, which started the whole story, which lasts for more than three years. During these events, Merlion repeatedly changed its CEO-Dmitry Vinogradov replaced Simonenko, and in February 2023, a veteran of the company Sergey Raskolov took over this post. He has been working there intermittently since 2003.
The Merlion case began with the arrest in November 2020 of three co – owners of the company-Oleg Karchev, Vladislav Mangutov (currently retired from the number of co-owners) and Alexey Abramov, as well as the company's former vice president for security Boris Levin. They were opposed by Vyacheslav Simonenko, who accused them of trying to kill him and his family members by setting fire to his home in 2015. At the same time, the alleged executor of the "order" appeared – a certain Grigory Zherenov, a veteran of military operations in the Donbass, who turned himself in to the police.
At the beginning of 2022, the investigation of the case went in a completely different direction. The criminal case against Mangutov, Karchev, Abramov and Levin was closed, each of them was released, and at the same time the investigation took on Vyacheslav Simonenko.
A criminal case was opened against the ex - CEO of Merlion, to which Zherenov's confessions were again attached, but this time they were completely different. The "arsonist" confessed that he had previously given deliberately false testimony against the co-owners of the IT distributor.
Even more actors
Zherenov's testimony, according to Kommersant, stated that he was part of an organized criminal community, which included, among others, Simonenko. The main goal of the group was to capture Merlion and its Citilink retailer. Further investigation revealed that to implement this plan, Simonenko used the "services" of the so-called "resolvers", after which the list of defendants in the case instantly expanded.
According to Kommersant, the "solvers" are the aforementioned investigator Alexey Nesnov, and together with him – senior inspector of the eighth department of the Personnel Department of the Investigative Committee Alexander Kireev, General Director of the company "Complex Legal Protection" Vasily Pashkevich and former employee of the Investigative Committee Kirill Kachur together with his father Vitaly Kachur. The latter, by the way, has a criminal record.
According to the UK, the group also includes some "other persons". CNews wrote that the listed "reshals" may be involved in other crimes. As of November 17, 2023, the investigation of the Merlion case continued.
Potential involvement of law enforcement agencies
The investigation of the case of Merlion IT distributor, related to the arrest of its co-founders in 2020, continues, and over time, the number of its defendants increases. According to RBC, citing people familiar with the investigation, the list now includes several employees of the Federal Security Service of Russia.
According to the publication, we are talking about employees of one of the departments of the department who oversaw the activities of law enforcement agencies. Their names and surnames, as well as their numbers, were not disclosed, but all of them were taken into custody amid suspicion of extortion of money on a particularly large scale.
According to publicly available information, the security forces are suspected of extorting 5 billion rubles directly from the management of Merlion. In exchange for this amount, they promised to stop investigative actions, according to one of the interlocutors of the publication.
First details
At the time of the publication of the material, it was known that all the security forces were arrested in the week from November 6 to November 12, 2023. According to the source, Sergei Romodanovsky, the former head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia (SU TFR) for the North – Western District of Moscow, was also in custody with them.
A similar fate befell the investigator of the same SU TFR Andrey Zheryutin. Along with him, the head of the Khoroshevsky investigative department of the same SU TFR Rustam Yusupov was also detained.
On November 17, 2023, according to the Telegram channel of the CHEKA-OGPU, a series of searches took place in the building of the FSB department for Moscow and the Moscow region. Whether there is a connection between them and the arrest of security forces last week, at the time of publication of the material was not reliably known.
According to RBC, the arrest of all the listed employees of the Investigative Committee took place on November 10, 2023 by the decision of the Basmanny Court of Moscow. They are accused of committing an impressive list of crimes, including violation of Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organizing a criminal community using their official position or participating in it) and Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (receiving a bribe on a particularly large scale).
Separately, it should be noted that Sergei Romodanovsky, who is the son of the former head of the Federal Migration Service of Russia, General Konstantin Romodanovsky, and Rustam Yusupov were detained with the support of the FSB.
An incredible twist
Alexey Nesnov, a former subordinate of Sergei Romodanovsky, is also being investigated in the case. He was assigned to investigate the case of an "attempt" on the former CEO of Merlion Vyacheslav Simonenko, which started the whole story, which lasts for more than three years. During these events, Merlion repeatedly changed its CEO-Dmitry Vinogradov replaced Simonenko, and in February 2023, a veteran of the company Sergey Raskolov took over this post. He has been working there intermittently since 2003.
The Merlion case began with the arrest in November 2020 of three co – owners of the company-Oleg Karchev, Vladislav Mangutov (currently retired from the number of co-owners) and Alexey Abramov, as well as the company's former vice president for security Boris Levin. They were opposed by Vyacheslav Simonenko, who accused them of trying to kill him and his family members by setting fire to his home in 2015. At the same time, the alleged executor of the "order" appeared – a certain Grigory Zherenov, a veteran of military operations in the Donbass, who turned himself in to the police.
At the beginning of 2022, the investigation of the case went in a completely different direction. The criminal case against Mangutov, Karchev, Abramov and Levin was closed, each of them was released, and at the same time the investigation took on Vyacheslav Simonenko.
A criminal case was opened against the ex - CEO of Merlion, to which Zherenov's confessions were again attached, but this time they were completely different. The "arsonist" confessed that he had previously given deliberately false testimony against the co-owners of the IT distributor.
Even more actors
Zherenov's testimony, according to Kommersant, stated that he was part of an organized criminal community, which included, among others, Simonenko. The main goal of the group was to capture Merlion and its Citilink retailer. Further investigation revealed that to implement this plan, Simonenko used the "services" of the so-called "resolvers", after which the list of defendants in the case instantly expanded.
According to Kommersant, the "solvers" are the aforementioned investigator Alexey Nesnov, and together with him – senior inspector of the eighth department of the Personnel Department of the Investigative Committee Alexander Kireev, General Director of the company "Complex Legal Protection" Vasily Pashkevich and former employee of the Investigative Committee Kirill Kachur together with his father Vitaly Kachur. The latter, by the way, has a criminal record.
According to the UK, the group also includes some "other persons". CNews wrote that the listed "reshals" may be involved in other crimes. As of November 17, 2023, the investigation of the Merlion case continued.
