The collapse of the ticket mafia: harsh verdict on the leader

[Tomcat]

The court handed down a harsh sentence to Yaroslav Sumbaev.

The Basmanny Court of Moscow has sentenced the organizer of the ticket mafia Yaroslav Sumbaev to 14 years in prison for creating a criminal community. This was reported by the press service of the court TASS.

"Sumbayev Yaroslav Vladimirovich was found guilty of committing a crime under Part 1 of Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (creation of a criminal community). The court sentenced him to 14 years imprisonment, with a fine of 500 thousand rubles, with restriction of freedom for 1 year and 6 months, with serving the sentence in a high — security penal colony," the press service said. The second organizer of the OPS, Oleg Cherepanov, was sentenced to 9.5 years in a high-security penal colony.

Sumbaev's co-conspirators Yevgeny Makhov, Vladimir Chetyrev and Mikhail Nikonov received sentences ranging from 8.5 to 10.5 years in prison. Civil claims of the victims were left without consideration, but the court retained the right to bring claims in civil proceedings.

According to the investigation, the criminal group included at least 27 people, some of them were singled out for separate proceedings.

Convicts used malicious software to interfere with the operation of the electronic system for selling railway tickets, issued them on behalf of accomplices, and then returned them to the ticket offices. Thus, at least 17 million rubles were stolen.

The case was investigated by Interior Ministry investigator Elena Shishkina, who was killed on Sumbaev's order. The perpetrator of the murder, Abdulaziz Abdulazizov, received 14 years in prison. Sumbayev himself was detained in Georgia and deported to Russia.

Information about the case caused a wide public response, emphasizing the importance of combating cybercrime and ensuring the safety of law enforcement officers.

 

[Tomcat]

The founder of a gang of “ticket hackers” received 14 years. The investigator in this case became the victim of the “first murder ordered on the darknet”

Russian cybercriminal Yaroslav Sumbaev was sentenced to 14 years in prison for organizing a criminal community. This decision, as reported by TASS, was made by the Basmanny District Court of Moscow. Of the 27 members of the group, only five were in the dock: Gleb Cherepanov (received 9.5 years), Vladimir Chetverev (9 years), Evgeniy Makhov (10.5 years) and Mikhail Nikonov (8.5 years). Three others heard sentences ranging from 10 to 13 years in 2019.

It is known that in 2013-2014, criminals were involved in fictitious refunds of railway and air tickets. Hackers led by Sumbaev managed to hack the databases of S7 Airlines and one of Russian Railways’ partners, the Universal Financial System company. Having stolen the logins and passwords of corporate clients from there, the hackers bought tickets by indicating the passport details of third parties. After that, they issued refunds at physical cash desks and offices, thus receiving 17 million rubles in cash.

The case was handled by Evgenia Shishkina, senior investigator for especially important cases of the transport department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Central Federal District. She was shot dead in October 2018 in the courtyard of her own house in the Moscow region. Then it turned out that Sumbaev had repeatedly sent threatening SMS messages to the woman, and the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, directly said that the cybercriminal was the main suspect in organizing the crime.

The perpetrators of the murder were later arrested, and the media dubbed the incident “the first murder ordered on the darknet.” In 2020, the direct perpetrator, 18-year-old Abdulaziz Abdulazizov, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. His accomplice Kirill Grunsky received 9.5 years. It was Grunsky who accepted the order, leaving himself 400 thousand rubles for intermediary services, and transferring to Abdulazizov the remaining 600 thousand received from the customer.

Sumbaev was arrested in Georgia just a month after the murder of Shishkina in a new case of cyber fraud. These charges were eventually dropped, but during the proceedings, local security forces learned that Sumbaev was wanted by Russia through Interpol. In October 2019, the suspect was extradited on the border of Georgia and North Ossetia. However, the Supreme Court of the Republic allowed him to be brought to Russia only under an article related to cybercrimes. Because of this, it was never possible to accuse him of Shishkina’s murder.