The fate of the ransomware: 1032 bitcoins are sent to the Russian state budget

[CarderPlanet]

The court confirmed the verdict of a corrupt investigator who extorted money from hackers.

The Moscow City Court confirmed the legality of the verdict of the Nikulinsky District Court, which satisfied the requirements of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation in relation to the former head of the investigative department of the GSU IC for the Tver district of Moscow, Marat Tambiev, accused of extorting more than 1 thousand bitcoins from the hacking group Infraud Organization. The press service of the Court of Appeal said that "the decision was not changed," writes TASS .

On June 19, the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow ruled in a civil case against Tambiev, according to which 1,032 bitcoins belonging to the defendant were confiscated in favor of the Russian Federation.

Tambiev, who was investigating the activities of members of the Infraud Organization, began to demand bitcoins earned by them illegally from the accused. Hackers contacted the FSB, which led to the arrest of the investigator. Later, his subordinates were also arrested. The Prosecutor General's Office filed a lawsuit to recover bitcoins received from the defendants. A case of bribery was initiated on this fact.

In March, the Tagansky District Court of Moscow sentenced members of the Fraud Organization on charges of illegal circulation of payment funds committed by an organized group, according to part 2 of Article 187 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

 

[CarderPlanet]

The Basmanny court of Moscow arrested in absentia the former deputy head of the investigative department of the TFR for the Tver district of the capital Dmitry Gubin in the case of a bribe in the amount of 2718.6 BTC.

He is accused of committing crimes under Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (taking a bribe on a particularly large scale) and Part 1 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of official authority).

The ex-investigator allegedly disappeared abroad. He is on the international wanted list and will be placed under arrest for two months from the date of extradition.

In September, Gubin's subordinate, Kristina Lyakhovenko, was taken into custody in the same case.

The main person involved in the case is the former head of the investigative department of the Tverskoy District committee, Marat Tambiev, who has been in jail since 2022.

According to investigators, the suspects formed a criminal group that periodically received bribes from defendants in various criminal cases.

The largest episode was the transfer of 2718.6 BTC (~7.3 billion rubles) by participants of the Fraud Organization hacker group for non-seizure of their assets.

In July, the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow seized 1032.1 BTC from Tambiev as state revenue. The access codes to the two accounts were stored on the suspect's computer in a folder called "Pension". The remaining assets were allegedly received by Lyakhovenko and Gubin.

According to the investigation, knowing about 5212.9 BTC on the hackers ' wallets, the defendants in the case prepared inspection protocols for the seized cold wallets, indicating the absence of cryptocurrency in them.

Recall, according to lawyer Vadim Bagaturia, 654 BTC "disappeared" from the case of a bribe.

The lawyer also pointed out multiple inconsistencies in the handwriting expertise of the notes found on Tambiev's computer.

 

[Father]

The appeal panel of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation left unchanged the decision to transfer to the Balashikha Court of the Moscow region a criminal case against former metropolitan investigators accused of receiving 1,032 bitcoins as a bribe from members of the hacking group Infraud Organization, the press service of the court told RAPSI.

"The decision of the court of first instance was left unchanged," the agency's interlocutor said.

Earlier, the Supreme Court granted the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation to send a criminal case against ex-investigators Marat Tambiev and Kristina Lyakhovenko to the Balashikha Court of the Moscow Region.

According to investigators, the defendants received a bribe in cryptocurrency from members of the hacking group Infraud Organization for not arresting their assets.

In June last year, the Nikulinsky court of Moscow turned 1,032 bitcoins received by the former head of the investigative department for the Tverskoy district of the capital, Marat Tambiev, into state revenue.

 

[Tomcat]

How did a Moscow investigator turn into a crypto oligarch?

In Russia, one of the largest cases of bribery in the country's history has reached the court. The former head of the investigative department of the Investigative Committee of the Tverskoy district of Moscow, 35-year-old justice major Marat Tambiev, is accused of accepting bribes totaling more than one and a half million dollars and 2718 bitcoins, which is equivalent to about 7.3 billion rubles. In addition, the investigation believes that he tried to illegally enrich himself by another $ 1.3 million. His accomplice is a former senior lieutenant and ex-investigator, 27-year-old Kristina Lyakhovenko.

Their colleagues from the Investigative Committee believe that the actions of the accused discredited the legal activity of the state in the fight against crime.

Initially, the case was supposed to be considered in Moscow, but the Supreme Court changed the territorial jurisdiction at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office. The reason was the fear that for a long time of working in the system of the metropolitan TFR Tambiev could acquire connections in the judicial corps of the capital, which would make it impossible to objectively consider the case in Moscow. Despite the objections of the defense, the trial will take place in Balashikha, Moscow region.

Major Tambiev is charged with 10 counts of receiving bribes on a particularly large scale (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code), four counts of preparing to receive a bribe (Part 1 of Article 30, Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code), as well as abuse of office (Part 1 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code). Lyakhovenko is accused of accepting one bribe, exceeding his authority and falsifying evidence in a criminal case (Part 3 of Article 303 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

The case against Tambiev and Lyakhovenko was opened at the request of hacker Mark Bergman, and lawyer Roman Meyer also testified against the investigator, who wrote a confession. The case against the lawyer on charges of mediation (Article 291.1 of the Criminal Code) was separated into separate proceedings.

The UK suggests that Meyer, under the guise of providing legal assistance, pulled money from his clients — members of the Fraud Organization hacker group, Mark and Konstantin Bergmanov, natives of Kazakhstan, and Kirill Samokutyaev, an Estonian citizen. Hackers founded the Unicvv marketplace on the darknet, which specialized in selling stolen bank card data and social security numbers of citizens of the United States and other countries. The case file says that the lawyer met Tambiev through his father's dacha neighbor.

In June 2020, five people broke into Mark Bergman's apartment under the guise of FSB officers led by the real colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yaroslav Sukovitsyn, taking money and valuables worth 5 million rubles. Lawyer Meyer turned to Major Tambiev for help. Tambiev, who then headed the Meshchansky investigative Department of the TFR, assisted in the operational initiation of a robbery case in the Department of Internal Affairs of the VAO, for which he received a bribe of 500 thousand rubles in gratitude.

Then, according to investigators, Tambiev received through a lawyer who had his share of the bribes, another 2.5 million rubles for transferring the robbery case from the police to the TFR. Later, fearing an investigation into his illegal hacking activities, Bergman paid the major another 250 thousand dollars to turn a blind eye to this. Major Tambiyev also obtained state protection for Mark Bergman for a bribe of $350,000, as well as the detention and arrest of his cousin Sultan Gasambekov. The latter was convicted in 2021 by the Moscow Garrison Military Court along with Colonel Sukovitsyn and three other accomplices for organizing a raid on his apartment.

When in January 2021 the Bergmans and Samokutyaev became defendants in a criminal case on the creation of the Unicvv marketplace under Part 2 of Article 187 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (illegal turnover of payment funds as part of the OG), the case fell to investigator Kristina Lyakhovenko from the investigative department for the Tver district, which by that time was headed by Marat Tambiev.

According to the investigation, hackers through lawyer Meyer paid Tambiev $ 590 thousand and 750 thousand rubles to be released under house arrest, and not in a pre-trial detention center. Of this amount, $500 thousand. Tambiev kept it for himself, and gave $90 thousand and rubles to a lawyer for mediation. Plus, Samokutyaev paid Tambiev $160 thousand to prevent him from seizing $750 thousand stored in a safe deposit box. Interestingly, of the $360,000 transferred by Samokutyaev through Meyer, the lawyer himself took $180,000.

During the searches, hackers found more than 5,200 bitcoins in crypto wallets. Instead of seizing this huge sum, Major Tambiev suggested that the hackers divide it equally. They agreed, after which, on the night of January 22, 2022, an IT specialist, Vladimir Tislenko, was invited to the evidence storage room of the Tverskoy District investigative department. He transferred 2,718 bitcoins to Tambiev's crypto wallets, and about 2,500 bitcoins to the new wallets of the accused hackers, after which he formatted the seized storage media.

The investigation believes that part of the embezzled bitcoins Tambiev shared with his deputy Dmitry Gubin, who is now wanted, as well as with investigator Kristina Lyakhovenko.

According to the Investigative Committee, Major Tambiev then repeatedly demanded new large bribes from the three defendants. So, he wanted $300 thousand for choosing a non-custodial measure for the suspect Baurzhan Tynshimov, a friend of Marat Bergman, as well as $1 million ($333 thousand for each of the three accused) for concluding a pre-trial cooperation agreement that would help them get the minimum terms. However, these requirements were not met

Major Marat Tambiev was arrested on March 24, 2022, after he demanded that Mark Bergman pay him half of the 56 million rubles stored in the accounts of the Sloboda company that actually belonged to Bergman.

To ensure that the company's account was not seized, the accused agreed to pay, but only for show. Having applied to law enforcement agencies, he handed over a cash "doll" through Roman Meyer, in which only one million rubles out of 26 million rubles was real.

Marat Tambiev categorically denies receiving any bribes and cryptocurrencies. He believes that Roman Meyer slanders him, embezzling money from clients and hiding behind his acquaintance with him. The defense points out that during the searches, no large amounts of cash or expensive property were found in Tambiev's possession. The lawyers claim that the investigation unconditionally accepted the testimony of interested persons, such as Tislenko, on faith.

Former investigator Kristina Lyakhovenko, who was arrested only in September 2023, also pleads not guilty. She denies accepting bitcoin bribes, abuse of authority, and falsifying evidence.

In March 2023, members of the Fraud Organization hacking group Bergmans, Samokutyaev and another person involved Novak received suspended sentences from 2.5 to 3.5 years by the Tagansky Court of Moscow.

In June 2023, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow turned 1032 bitcoins (about 1.6 billion rubles) found in the "pension" folder from Marat Tambiyev's computer into state revenue. However, the fate of the remaining 1,100 bitcoins out of the 2,718 assigned to them is still unknown.

It is expected that the Balashikha City Court will start considering the case in June.

 

[Carding Forum]

The case of the largest crypto bribe in the Russian Federation went to court

Details of the case of the largest cryptocurrency bribe in the history of Russia were announced on June 25 in the City Court of Balashikha. The prosecutor announced the indictment against former Moscow investigator Marat Tambiev. He is charged with several episodes of bribery in the amount of 7.3 billion rubles. According to the investigation, the officer extorted money from members of the Infrastructure Organization hacker group, who were previously sentenced to suspended sentences for illegal circulation of payment funds. Tambiev allegedly promised that the funds on the crypto wallets of the defendants in the case would not fall under arrest, and for such a service he asked for half of the bitcoins stored there. Experts believe that such crimes are possible due to the lack of clear regulatory regulation of how to deal with the seized cryptocurrency.

Long-term cooperation

The Balashikha City Court has started considering a criminal case against Marat Tambiev, a former investigator of the Moscow Central office of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. He was charged with a number of corruption crimes totaling about 7.3 billion rubles. On June 25, the first hearing on the merits of the case was held.

Tambiev was charged with 15 counts of bribery, attempted bribery and abuse of office. Together with him in the case is his former subordinate Kristina Lyakhovenko. She is charged with one episode of receiving a bribe on a particularly large scale, falsifying evidence in a criminal case, and exceeding her official authority.

The former investigator was detained in March 2022-in the case of receiving a bribe from lawyer Roman Meyer. He represented the interests of members of the hacking group Infraud Organization-Mark and Konstantin Bergmanov and Kirill Samokuteyev.

From the indictment, it follows that Tambiev used his official position and helped hackers since 2020. Then he helped initiate criminal proceedings against the persons who robbed Bergman's apartment. The justice officer received 500 thousand rubles for his services.

Tambiev's cooperation with hackers did not end there, and later he repeatedly received multimillion-dollar bribes from them for hiding their activities from the investigative authorities.

Nevertheless, in January 2022, Bergmanov and Samokutyaev were sent under house arrest in a case of illegal circulation of payment funds. This case was investigated by Kristina Lyakhovenko and Tambiev at that time. For choosing a milder measure of restraint, the investigator demanded $200 thousand from each person involved.

Also, in the case of illegal circulation of payment funds, hackers seized hard drives with crypto wallets containing more than 5 thousand bitcoins. According to the prosecution, Tambiev suggested that the defendants in the case divide the funds equally, and transfer the part belonging to them to new crypto-wallets in order to avoid arrest of the cryptocurrency.

Later, according to the investigation, Tambiev again repeatedly extorted money from the accused, but they eventually turned to the FSB. To transfer the next tranche, the operatives prepared a dummy of funds in the amount of 26 million rubles and took Tambiev red-handed. Later, during the searches, 1032 bitcoins were found in the officer's possession. He kept the keys to the crypto wallet on his computer in a folder called "Pension".

At the first hearing of the court, Tambiev once again declared his innocence.

"I don't admit the charge categorically," he said after listening to the prosecutor's speech. — I consider this accusation offensive, and the facts stated in it are outrageous and one-sided. I do not intend to humiliate myself on the principle of "Don't eat me, eat them". I did not accept the concepts of honor and dignity for this purpose, in order to exchange them here.

According to Tambiev, the criminal case against him is aimed at" whitewashing programmers " and the seized cryptocurrency. And the name of the folder with keys to crypto wallets on his computer, he called a kind of working humor.

— During the investigation of my case, I read in the media that my cryptocurrency was seized. But I don't deny it. My job as an investigator is to find her, " he said in court.

In March 2023, the court sentenced the participants of the Fraud Organization Mark and Konstantin Bergman, as well as Kirill Samokutyaev in a case of illegal circulation of payment funds. They made a deal with the investigation, revealed the details of the crimes, pointed out to the operatives other participants in the crimes and got off with suspended sentences. And in June of the same year, the Nikulinsky court turned 1032 bitcoins (1.6 billion rubles) found on Tambiev's computer into state revenue.

Material evidence issue

Tambiev could freely dispose of the bitcoins seized as material evidence in the case, as the issue of storing such currency in a criminal case has not yet been worked out at the legislative level in Russia, lawyer Alexander Burchuk told Izvestia.

"Cold crypto wallets seized in criminal cases are handed over to the investigator directly on flash drives," he said. — Now at the level of the idea, the creation of a platform based on the Central Bank that will accumulate, store and sell the withdrawn cryptocurrency has been announced. But this is not regulated yet, unlike other types of physical evidence.

The lawyer noted that the procedure for storing gold, jewelry and cash is clearly spelled out in the legislation. Documents on the delivery of these evidence are duplicated not only in the criminal case, but also in the departmental accounting. Moreover, they are reflected even in mobilization plans and are written off to the city's military budget when martial law is declared.

"While many issues of cryptocurrency turnover are in the gray zone, the number of crimes related to it will also grow," the expert said. — In addition, the situation makes it difficult to resolve civil law issues, including inheritance disputes, as well as the execution of sentences.

Since 2018, there has been an increase in cases of cryptocurrency circulation to the state's income, Maria Yundina, a lawyer for Asnis and Partners, told Izvestia.

— In general, over the past few years, the number of criminal cases related to cryptocurrency has increased by more than 17%, " the expert said. — The main difficulties with the withdrawal of cryptocurrencies are related to the lack of legal regulation in this area. At the moment, the owners of crypto wallets are established in an operational way: the information carrier on which the cryptocurrency is stored (phones, cold wallets) is withdrawn. Data about the passphrase for accessing the wallet can be found during a search, clarified during an interrogation, or in correspondence.

The lawyer noted that the cryptocurrency seized as physical evidence can be stored on private wallets of law enforcement officers or the department's wallet, if such a wallet was opened. In her opinion, procedurally, all these actions should be formalized by a decree on recognition as material evidence with an indication of the place of storage of the cryptocurrency.

Marina Yundina added that to solve this problem, the Ministry of Finance is developing a bill to create a digital platform for storing cryptocurrencies seized in criminal cases.

There are no provisions in the criminal procedure law that equate cryptocurrency with property, said Artem Yablokov, a lawyer and partner of the Yablokov Brothers company.

"But since cryptocurrency has value, in practice it is still classified as property, and the courts have already begun to make decisions on the seizure and confiscation of cryptocurrency assets," he said.

The expert noted that if the cryptocurrency is in the wallet of a crypto exchange, it can transfer the currency within the framework of international agreements on legal assistance or at the request of Russian police officers to law enforcement agencies of a foreign country. But this will be impossible to do if the cryptocurrency is stored in the wallet of the accused himself. Then the solution will be to conclude a cooperation agreement with the accused, Artyom Yablokov believes.

In March 2023, the head of the government commission for the prevention of offenses, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev instructed the Ministry of Finance to work out the issue of creating a digital currency platform localized on the territory of the Russian Federation and under state control for their withdrawal and storage in criminal proceedings. He asked to report on the work done by October 2024.

• Video: https://iz.ru/video/embed/1717898

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A hearing on the case of Marat Tambiev, the former head of the Tverskoy District Police Department, has begun in the Balashikha court. He is accused of receiving a huge bribe in the amount of 2.7 thousand bitcoins (over 7 billion rubles), which was first reported by the telegram channel of the Cheka-OGPU.

Rucriminal.info I found a few more stories from Tambiev's life that could turn into criminal cases.

According to the source of the publication, Tambiev felt a special hatred for the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, although in 2011 he graduated with a red diploma from the Moscow University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. How did you manage to install the Cheka-OGPU and Rucrminal.info the joint work of lawyer Roman Meyer (who at that time still had the surname Kovalev, a victim in the case of a giant bribe) and Tambiev (at that time the head of the Meshchansky MRSO) began back in 2018. Kovalev R. S. received the status of a lawyer in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic and the work began to boil. How many people have suffered from the illegal actions of such a joint tandem for 4 years of existence, we hope the investigation will someday understand.

We were able to find out some circumstances of one of these cases, initiated back in 2018. For 6 years, the court has repeatedly returned without staff to deter obstacles to consideration in accordance with paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Article 237 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation and still has no final decision.

In the early stages of criminal cases of the Meshchansky MSRO, the defense of suspects/accused was carried out by a friend, comrade and hand-held lawyer Meyer-Kovalev. Tambiev felt so at ease that he could disagree with the legislation of the Russian Federation and with the words - "I do not agree with the Criminal Code" - gave instructions to subordinate investigators to initiate criminal proceedings, for which the Criminal Code does not provide for criminal liability at all (initiated under Article 291.1 of the Criminal Code with a less significant amount). After that, Tambiev agreed on the indictment, of course, after Tambiev, the Petty-bourgeois prosecutor's office did not even check the legality of initiating and other procedural actions in such criminal cases. In criminal cases initiated in the investigative unit entrusted to M. Kh. Tambiev, the detainees initially assumed that the lawyer" defender " Meyer (Kovalev) arrived in accordance with Article 51, but the status of a lawyer in the KCR and the so - called "Roulette" introduced prevented the client from legally joining the case under Article 51. With the status of Meyer, the issue was later resolved, having received the status of a lawyer in the Moscow region, and then in Moscow, and, according to information on the website of the Ministry of Justice, the status of a lawyer is still valid.

Under Lawyer Meyer, the investigator managed to conduct inspections of objects, interrogate suspects/accused in his absence, and only then, with the assistance of R. S. Meyer, they slipped these documents to the poor guys for signature. Confessions were also changed and rewritten, printed ones appeared from handwritten ones, but sometimes they were in such a hurry that they forgot to indicate the name "surrender" or, to make it easier to "slip" for the signature, and Tambiev managed to write out the procedure in hindsight. checks to investigators who have not yet come to his service. If the material evidence contradicted the accusation, it was hidden in other criminal cases along with inspections or even thrown out in the trash next to the building of the Investigative Committee, and upon the fact of loss of material evidence, including in particularly serious cases, a decision was made to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings under Part 1 of Article 158 of the Criminal Code (theft) in connection with the fact that the investigative body did not find any elements of a crime in the actions of "unidentified" persons.

Employees of the OSB of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Central Administrative District of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Moscow (one of them studied with Tambiev in a higher educational institution) without verification materials, regardless of the territory of detention, were sent to the Meshchansky MRSO in Moscow to Tambiev. The employee of the OSB Department of Internal Affairs for the Central Administrative District of Moscow did not disdain to engage in falsification in 2018, the material was transferred "in good hands", forged signatures of witnesses during the OPM, changed the content of the provided correspondence in messengers, destroyed audio recordings that contradict the alleged accusation, and of course made reports "retroactively", describing in them those that had not yet occurred events… Before being delivered personally to Tambiev, the detainees were held in handcuffs for a long time to make them more compliant. there is no need to even talk about reports on the use of special means.

According to documents obtained by the CHEKA-OGPU editorial board in February 2023, the Basmanny Court seized 1,032 bitcoins located on two crypto wallets belonging to Tambiev. However, the latter also had accomplices. Another 1,032 bitcoins from members of the hacking group The Fraud Organization went to employees of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. But they prefer to turn a blind eye to this.

Members of The Infraud were detained on January 18, 2022, the events were held by employees of the K Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation , Tambiev personally came to the place, since it was his department that initiated the case against the members of the group. If you "reverse" track the paths of bitcoins that have now been seized, you can see the following picture.

During searches of the members of The Infraud, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the TFR gained access to ten crypto - wallets, which received 2064 bitcoins in December 2021-proceeds from hacking activities. At the time of the events, it was approximately 82.5 million dollars. Access to the wallets was provided by the members of Infraud themselves, most of whom the investigation, headed by Tambiev, then asked for a preventive measure in the form of house arrest.

Immediately after the election of Domarest and as soon as information about the detention of members of Infraud got into the media (the CHEKA-OGPU was the first to report this), on January 21, money from 10 Infraud wallets is transferred to one bitcoin wallet. It receives 2064 btc.

On March 7, 2022, it is time to " cut " this jackpot. 932 bitcoins and 100 bitcoins are transferred to two Tambiev wallets installed on his phone. According to the decision of the Basmanny Court, these funds were seized and transferred to the wallet assigned by the court on November 17, 2022.

Also, on March 7, 2022, exactly half of the funds (another 1032 bitcoins) went to the "cold wallet".

Earlier, sources of the Cheka-OGPU said that the" second half " of kush went to the employees of the K Department who took part in the searches.

According to the CHEKA-OGPU, the activities in relation to the Fraud Organization were related to the deputy head of the K Department, Police Colonel Boris Nikiforov, who was present at the search, the head of the 4th department of the K Department, Police Colonel Alexey Rykov and his deputy, Police Major Roman Chichin.

However, Tambiev did not find this kush enough.

After the arrest, the leaders of the Bergmanov group were extorted for money by their lawyer Roman Meyer, who stated that they still had to pay $ 1 million and 26 million rubles for the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the TFR and the Prosecutor's office, so that everything would end well for the participants of Infraud. Then the Bergmans turned to the FSB of the Russian Federation and in a chain detained Meyer and Tambiev.

Basmanny court arrested bitcoins on Tambiev's wallet. However, the investigation into the theft of bitcoins by employees of the K Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation has not yet begun.

In March 2023, the Tagansky Court of Moscow issued a verdict in a criminal case against the leaders of one of the largest hacker groups, The Fraud Organization. All the leaders received suspended sentences and this is understandable. During the arrest, they had bitcoins worth tens of millions of dollars on their devices, which were stolen by investigators and employees of the K Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. In return for their silence, the leaders of The Fraud were promised suspended sentences and the security forces, who became dollar millionaires, kept their word.

Bagish Rizaev (Mark Bergman)was punished by the servants of Themis three years and six months probation for Konstantin Sinichkin (Konstantin Bergman) three years of probation, Andrey Novak-two and a half years of probation and an Estonian citizen Kirill Samokutyaev - three years of probation.

As the CHEKA-OGPU found out, Bagish Rizaev (Mark Bergman) and Konstantin Sinichkin (Konstantin Bergman) met in 2006. During this period, their activities were conducted on the territory of Kazakhstan. In 2011 Andrey Novak joined them, and in 2012 Kirill Samokutyaev, a citizen of Estonia, joined their team. Immediately after that, they move all their work to Moscow and launch a market place “UNICVV.RU”. On this resource, any registered user, having replenished the balance of their account, could purchase stolen bank card data and foreign social security numbers.

Until 2016, the monthly cash turnover was about $ 100,000, and since 2016 it has grown to $ 3,000,000 per month.

Sources of the Cheka-OGPU said that Nikita Potapov, a senior operative of the 1st department of the SSB of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for Moscow and the Moscow region, was responsible for the security of the group and supervised its activities.

After the meeting between Putin and Biden, the go-ahead went to work on all major hacker groups from Russia, and The Infraud got its turn.

During searches of the members of The Infraud, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the TFR gained access to ten crypto - wallets, which received 2064 bitcoins in December 2021-proceeds from hacking activities. At the time of the events, it was approximately 82.5 million dollars. Access to the wallets was provided by the members of Infraud themselves, most of whom the investigation, headed by the head of the Tverskoy District Police Department, Marat Tambiev, then asked for a preventive measure in the form of house arrest.

It is worth noting that shady stores selling stolen credit card data of The Infraud hacker group have also come to life. Members of the group were detained in January 2022, at the same time the "shops" stopped working. In particular, on the website of their largest store UNICVV.EN a beautiful sign appeared that it was permanently closed by the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

And now the store "permanently closed during a special operation", suddenly, came to life. The same thing happens with a number of other Infrastructure sites.

To be continued

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The Cheka-OGPU became aware of the identity of the first "SVO volunteers", who were released under the new law directly from the pre-trial detention center in exchange for a contract with the Ministry of Defense. The source also told how this process is going.

According to the source of the CHEKA-OGPU, the contract with the Ministry of Defense in Moscow has already been signed by former investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Andrey Chekirev and Andrey Shumkin. The first person involved in the case of fraud with more than 100 bitcoins. The latter was a subordinate of the former head of the investigative department of the Investigative Committee for the Tver district of the capital, Marat Tambiev, who extorted more than 1 thousand bitcoins from the hacking group Infraud Organization, and led the billion-dollar case of the former deputy Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

According to the source, both were confirmed as sapper riflemen of the assault company of the 752nd Guards motorized Rifle Regiment.

In the Moscow region, the list of candidates was headed by the former deputy head of the traffic police of the Klin district Dmitry Pisarenko. Recently, FSB operatives caught him with a whole arsenal in Solnechnogorsk. Having the specialty of a sniper instructor and experience working in hot spots is a direct ticket to war for him.

According to the interlocutor, after the adoption of the law for prisoners by the State Duma in March 2024, Instructions No. 269/49/1/220/1/4274/303/1-u/14/3611 dated 11.04.2024 (GP of the Russian Federation, IC of Russia, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, EMERCOM of Russia, FSB of Russia, FCS of Russia) were sent to all departments, in which the algorithm for recruiting defendants in cases is described in detail to the war.

In fact, the investigator or inquirer passes the ward a pre-printed application form, where the transcript of the author's signature already begins with the word "private". The completed paper is sent to the military enlistment office (in Moscow, this is a selection point for military service under a contract, 1 or 2 categories depending on age).

After that, the investigator draws up a visit permit for two employees of the Point, who, instead of the standard VVC, conduct an examination of candidates directly within the walls of the pre-trial detention center. Separate military personnel are assigned to each isolation ward.

Further, a joint commission of the Selection Point and military enlistment office employees is formally held, according to persons from among the special contingent. There, the issue of accepting a specific candidate for service is resolved and even a position is assigned with the division to which he will be sent.

As a result, an extract from the protocol of the commission and a request for suspension of the case against the person involved, signed by the head of the Selection Point for military service under the contract, Major Ivan Tekuchev, are sent to the investigator, who makes a corresponding decision.

 

[Carding Forum]

In the case of a record-breaking bribe in the country, scandalous accusations were made against the investigation itself.

At the trial that started on Tuesday, the former head of the investigative department of the TFR for the Tver district of Moscow, Marat Tambiev, pleaded not guilty to charges of receiving a record-breaking bribe in the history of Russia in the amount of more than 2,718 bitcoins (7.3 billion rubles) and $1.5 million, as well as trying to get another $1.3 million. The defendant stated that only in the pre-trial detention center did he understand that " the fight against corruption is worse than corruption itself." His subordinate, ex-investigator Kristina Lyakhovenko, also disagreed with the accusation. According to the girl, who is accused of billions in shady income, she rented a room and lived on loans.

Major of Justice Marat Tambiev and Senior Lieutenant Kristina Lyakhovenko were delivered to the courtroom of the Balashikha City Court of the Moscow region at exactly half past ten in the morning, as planned. "It is absurd to believe that at the age of 33, an ordinary employee and his subordinate living in a rented room stole some fabulous billions," Mr. Tambiyev immediately defended himself and his subordinate, after which he added — "Only when I was behind bars did I understand the wording that "the fight against corruption is worse than the fight against corruption". the very corruption"". The defendant, who turned out to be a divorced father of two children, aged three and six, promised to reveal the essence of this idea during the trial. And it wasn't long in coming. But first, the defendant asked to allow his common-law wife Esmira Radzhabova as a defender in the case, in order to "optimize" the process of presenting evidence and prevent red tape.

The defendant said that he graduated from the university with a red diploma and for ten years of work was recognized as the best investigator.

In this regard, he will have enough competence and experience to defend himself, but according to the law, he must have a professional lawyer, who, as the defendant admitted, is now conducting his case completely free of charge.

"If the court had allowed me, I would have refused the services of Igor Olegovich (Kopenkin.- "Kommersant"), so as not to distract him from business and so that he does not engage in charity work," the person involved said. At the same time, according to him, in addition to analytical work, he needs technical assistance to provide 63 volumes of the case and audio recordings. "The need for this is particularly acute, I ask the court to approach this issue leniently," the defendant asked.

However, it turned out that Ms. Radzhabova, although she has experience working in law enforcement agencies, only receives a higher legal education, so the court rejected the defendant's request.

It showed that Mr. Tambiev, according to investigators, received 10 bribes on a particularly large scale (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code), intended to take four more (Part 1 of Article 30, Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code) and exceeded his official powers (Part 1 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code).

The crimes incriminated to the defendant were committed in 2020-2022, when Mr. Tambiev served first as the head of the Meshchansky Investigative Department of the TFR, and then as the head of the investigative department of the Committee for the Tver district of the capital. At the same time, the bribe-givers were always the same people — members of the Fraud Organization hacker group, natives of Kazakhstan Mark and Konstantin Bergman (they were not related to each other, but previously had the surnames Rizaev and Sinichkin, respectively), as well as an Estonian citizen Kirill Samokutyaev. The trio created a Unicvv marketplace on the darknet, where they sold stolen bank card and Social Security number (SSN) data to foreigners, mostly US citizens.

According to the prosecution, at first Major Tambiev, through the hackers ' lawyer Roman Meyer, helped promptly open a case against the people who raided Mark Bergman's apartment. Then he assisted in transferring the case from the police to the TFR. He also organized the state defense of Mark Bergman and made sure that investigators turned a blind eye to the hacker's illegal business.

For all these actions, according to the prosecutor, the investigator took from 500 thousand rubles to $350 thousand.

And when, in January 2021, Messrs. Bergmans and Samokutyaev finally became involved in a criminal case (it was conducted by the TFR for the Tversky district of Moscow) for creating an illegal Unicvv marketplace, they had to pay Major Tambiev large sums again, and more than once. For example, house arrest cost hackers $600 thousand. However, the largest episode is related to the crypto wallets found in their possession during searches on flash drives and hard drives, where 5212.9 bitcoins, or 14 billion rubles, were stored. According to the prosecution, instead of imposing an arrest on the cryptocurrency, Mr. Tambiev offered the defendants to share, returning them half. This was done, as a result of which the investigator became the owner of 2718 bitcoins, or 7 billion 309 million 881 thousand rubles. At some point, the hackers got tired of paying, they turned to the FSB, and Marat Tambiev was detained.

Kristina Lyakhovenko, who was arrested a year and a half later, was charged with taking a bribe with bitcoins, which, according to the investigation, her boss shared with her, as well as abuse of official authority and falsifying evidence in a criminal case (Part 3 of Article 303 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

After listening to the plot of the accusation, Mr. Tambiev said that he categorically does not admit guilt, considers the version of the prosecutor's office and the investigation offensive, and the facts set out in it "absolutely outrageous and one-sided."

However, he will not "knock" on anyone, since he was taught from childhood that "it is bad to become a snitch". "There is everything in the case. "I don't intend to humiliate myself by defending myself on the principle of 'don't eat me, but eat them'." His speech was quite emotional. In it, Mr. Tambiev touched upon the concept of honor and dignity, traditional values, Jesus Christ, as well as a sense of humor.

The defendant stated that for ten years he literally lived at work and that a folder called "pension" was found on the desktop of his computer with access codes to two accounts that stored 1032.1 bitcoins, or 1.662 billion rubles. (they were later converted to state revenue by the claim of the Prosecutor General's Office), no nothing surprising. In such a joking way, according to the ex-investigator, he named all the folders on the computer's desktop to brighten up the routine.

"I have a victim — "patient", the accused — "villain", the extension of the investigation — "red tape", the seizure of property — "pension", " the defendant stated this version.

Marat Tambiev called the investigation conducted in his case incompetent. He briefly expressed his attitude to the prosecution, drawing the court's attention to several points. Thus, the defendant pointed out that, according to the prosecution's plot, the cryptocurrency found in hackers ' possession "was obtained by criminal means and was subject to circulation to the state's income." "What shocks me is that not a single word is said about this in the case file!" remarked the defendant Tambiev. According to him, during the investigation, the hackers involved were interrogated more than 10 times for the sole purpose of proving that the cryptocurrency was allegedly mined legally. "I'm just in shock, what's the joke? What kind of investigation is this? You write in the accusation that it should be withdrawn, while in all the case materials it is legal, and obtained legally, and was subject to return!" — Mr. Tambiev was indignant. According to him, one of the defendants in the case said that the currency was sent to a certain IP address, and even named it. However, the investigation, instead of understanding who received it and sending a corresponding request, did not do so, having spent time interrogating insignificant persons. "The whole mystery was only in one thing — to whom the money was withdrawn, to whom the IP address belongs," lamented the defendant Tambiev. In his opinion, the investigation was aimed at "whitewashing" the programmers, and did not even try to find out where the remaining 1782 bitcoins went. "They don't seem to exist!" — said Marat Tambiev, explaining that the investigation" attributed " the theft of this amount to Kristina Lyakhovenko. He called his younger colleague "a child who sits for nothing" and said that during the investigation, he and Kristina Lyakhovenko offered to test them on a lie detector.

"There are a lot of similar facts in the car and small cart case. If I had this cryptocurrency, we wouldn't be sitting here, " the defendant said."Logic directly indicates that there is a dog buried in the file." "And I would like to remind you who shouts "stop the thief" loudest of all, " the person involved hinted at the involvement of his colleagues from the GSU TFR in the loss of electronic currency.

The defendant claimed that he was "slandered", " hanging on him the sins of people who were brazenly released in the case." He also accused the Prosecutor General's Office of" double standards", saying that the agency never filed a lawsuit to seize bitcoins from hackers. The latter, according to the verdict of the Tagansky Court in 2023, received suspended sentences for "illegal turnover of payment funds" (Part 2 of Article 187 of the Criminal Code).

"There is no smoke without fire. But such a large amount of smoke makes it difficult to find the source of the hearth, "the person involved philosophically replaced, noting that what he said" is not even the tip of the iceberg that you have to dive into."

In conclusion, he admitted that "I didn't want to be an investigator, I wanted to teach, but it turned out that way." "I'm glad I ended up like this. Prison is better than continuing what it was, " said the defendant Tambiev.

His lawyer Igor Kopenkin expressed the opinion that "there are all grounds for returning the case to the prosecutor, since the essential circumstances have not been established in the case."

Kristina Lyakhovenko was brief. She also stated that she did not recognize any of the charges and was also slandered by persons who "themselves were" under suspicion and illegally "enriched" at the expense of part of the undiscovered bitcoins.

She noted that the missing cryptocurrency was never found in her possession, and she left the service at her own request only after a year and a half due to health problems.

The defendant said that her mother worked as a salesman in Bryansk, and her father was a security guard. She herself received a salary of 66 thousand rubles., for 20 thousand rented a room in Butovo and has never been abroad. After she allegedly received a billion-dollar bribe in bitcoins, she took out a bank loan of 200 thousand rubles. "This is just some kind of absurdity," the defendant called the charges.

 

[Friend]

20 years of strict regime with a fine of half a billion rubles - this is the punishment demanded by the state prosecution for the former head of the investigative department of the ICR for the Tverskoy district of Moscow, Marat Tambiev. Speaking during the debate of the parties in the Balashikha City Court of the Moscow Region, prosecutor Nadezhda Tikhonova said that the guilt of the law enforcement officer in receiving a record bribe in the amount of more than 2718 bitcoins (7.3 billion rubles) and $ 1.5 million from hackers, as well as in an attempt to enrich himself by another $ 1.3 million and in abuse of office is beyond doubt. Mr. Tambiev himself, who called the criminal case a dispute between "strawberry and cheese lovers", supported the state prosecution only in a request to deprive him of his title.

In order to sum up the judicial investigation, which took two and a half months, it took the prosecutor about an hour and a half. During this time, the representative of the Prosecutor General's Office analyzed the evidence confirming, in her opinion, the guilt of Marat Tambiyev, as well as the former investigator Kristina Lyakhovenko, who appeared before the court with him.

According to the investigation, Mr. Tambiev received bribes in 2020-2022, when he first held the position of head of the Meshchansky Investigative Department of the TFR, and then head of the investigative department of the Committee for the Tverskoy District of the capital. They were paid by members of the hacker group Infraud Organization, natives of Kazakhstan Mark and Konstantin Bergman, as well as Estonian citizen Kirill Samokutyaev. The money was transferred through their lawyer Roman Meyer for making various procedural decisions.

For example, for the defendants to be sent under house arrest, and not to a pre-trial detention center, as well as for the investigation not to arrest their crypto wallets, where the defendants were found with 5212.9 bitcoins, or 14 billion rubles

Perhaps this was due to the fact that Senior Lieutenant Lyakhovenko, at the direction of the chief, drew up a protocol that the seized media were empty, after which IT specialist Vladimir Tislenko was let into the cell with material evidence of the investigative department at night. He transferred 2,718.66 bitcoins to Major Tambiyev's crypto wallets, and another 2,493.6 bitcoins to the defendants' new wallets.

The prosecutor noted that as a result of the criminal actions of the defendants, electronic money was not seized and 14 billion could not be confiscated to the state.

The state prosecutor recalled that during the trial, the defendants denied their guilt. Thus, Mr. Tambiev claimed that he did not take any bribes, and he met with the defender Meyer, since he had known him for a long time and advised him on the cases that he handled as an appointed lawyer. The prosecutor called Mr. Tambiev's arguments that lawyer Meyer slandered him in order to avoid criminal liability for giving bribes untenable. "The investigation had only operational information, there were suspicions. No one blamed Tambiev. These suspicions were checked and confirmed," the state prosecutor said.

She recalled that the major was detained by FSB officers red-handed - when receiving a bribe in the amount of 26 million rubles from Mark Bergman through lawyer Roman Meyer.

At the same time, the state prosecutor rejected the defendant's argument that in the latter case, allegedly There was a provocation of a bribe. The prosecutor stressed that the "initiative" came from the security official, and not from the lawyer. According to her, subsequently, only 1032 bitcoins (or 1.6 billion rubles) were found on Mr. Tambiev's computer, since "he disposed of most of it at his own discretion."

Nadezhda Tikhonova urged the court not to believe the testimony of the defendant Lyakhovenko, who insisted that she left the investigative department even before the IT specialist Tislenko made the first transaction with bitcoins.

"Bergman, Samokutyaev and 10 other people testified that Lyakhovenko was (that night - Kommersant) in the department," the prosecutor said. In her opinion, the fact that the investigator's phone was not recorded in this area is nothing more than "an attempt to create an alibi for himself."

"The guilt of the defendants is beyond doubt," the prosecutor summed up, asking the court to find Mr. Tambiev guilty of receiving nine bribes on an especially large scale (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), one bribe on a large scale (Part 5 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), as well as four preparations for receiving a bribe (Part 1 of Article 30, Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and abuse of office (Part 1 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Ms. Lyakhovenko, according to the prosecutor, should be convicted for one episode of taking a bribe with bitcoins, abuse of office, as well as falsification of evidence in a criminal case (Part 3 of Article 303 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

In order to "restore social justice", the prosecutor demanded that Mr. Tambiev be sentenced to 20 years of strict regime with a fine of 500 million rubles, and Mrs. Lyakhovenko to 13 years of general regime, depriving the defendants of the ranks of major and senior lieutenant of justice, respectively.

While the prosecutor was speaking, Kristina Lyakhovenko was sitting in the corner of the cage, wearing a black medical mask over her face. Marat Tambiev wrote notes in a notebook, laughed from time to time, and at some point he got up and began to do exercises to stretch his back.

The term requested by the prosecutor could not unsettle him. "This is a little more than half (lived. - Kommersant) life," the defendant, who will turn 36 in two weeks, remarked with a laugh. His speech in the debate turned out to be very emotional. In it, Major Tambiev categorically disagreed with the conclusions of the procedural opponent about the proof of his guilt, arguing that all the arguments of the prosecution are "subjective" and "based on assumptions." He reproached prosecutor Nadezhda Tikhonova for using phrases such as "one can think" and "one can assume." The ex-investigator recalled that the law prescribes guilt to be supported by evidence.

"I can't shake the feeling that I am not present at a trial, but at a dispute between lovers of cheese and strawberries," he said and said that for 30 months the investigation "did not bother to collect evidence."

The defendant continued to insist that he did not take bribes, and together with his colleague Lyakhovenko investigated the case of cybercriminals, "creating a practice of combating this type of crime."

"We did not cause a penny of damage to the state, but reimbursed to the budget more than 4 billion rubles seized from Internet fraudsters as part of the case that we were conducting, although it seems to everyone that we put them in our pockets," the defendant lamented. He also accused opponents of "double standards."

"The prosecution says thatTambiev took bribes, because in detail he met with Meyer. But Lyakhovenko was not at the scene of the crime in detail, but this does not mean anything!" the defendant was indignant, mentioning himself in the third person.

Mr. Tambiev noted that his alleged accomplice, Dmitry Gubin, deputy head of the investigative department of the ICR for the Tverskoy district of the capital, arrested in absentia, according to the investigation, fled to Uzbekistan. "It is unlikely that this is a country of billionaires," the defendant noted. According to him, the IT specialist Tislenko, who remained at large, the case against whom was terminated on charges of mediation in bribery, as against a person who voluntarily reported crimes, left for Dubai and is not going to return.

"So who has these billions?" the defendant asked rhetorically. He added that he "becomes ashamed to stand in the same ranks" with the security forces and he no longer wants to do this. "Therefore, I ask you to deprive me of my title," Mr. Tambiev addressed the judge, and then threw in his heart: "It feels like our state is sick with HIV! Immunity destroys (those who protect it) and breeds parasitism!"

Lawyer Igor Kopenkin asked his client to acquit him. According to him, after the arrest of Mr. Tambiev, the stolen bitcoins were withdrawn from his crypto accounts to the accounts of unidentified persons, "which confirms that he did not dispose of them."

The other about 2.5 thousand bitcoins left by the hackers ended up on one flash drive. As the main witnesses for the prosecution Bergman and Samokutyaev reported in court, they allegedly lost it. "That's 7 billion! Despite the fact that in May 2022, according to data on the blockchain platform, transactions were carried out with these bitcoins," the lawyer said. He noted that the investigation did not even try to find cryptocurrency.

Mrs. Lyakhovenko insisted that she had nothing to do with corruption, rented a room in Butovo and lived on loans. Her lawyer Jamali Guliyev asked to find her guilty only of falsifying the search protocol (Article 303 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the lawyer, the investigator committed this crime unintentionally, believing the words of her boss Tambiev and one of the defendants, Kirill Bergman, that there was nothing on the flash drives seized during the searches. He called on the court to sentence his client under this article to a non-custodial sentence, and to acquit him on other charges.

It is expected that on September 12, the defendants will make their last statement, after which the court will retire to sentencing.

 

[angel_EVA]

ну вот, а вы говорите 5 тыс баксов только можно заработать в месяц. все они умеют, просто делиться не хотят)))

 

[angel_EVA]

а щас в тюрьма есть же телефоны? напишите а в телегу мне. я вам добуду к выходу еще столько же, если научите
я не шучу))
правда не шучу!
я даже научу как биткоины прятать так, чтобы и потом не находили

and now there are phones in prison? write and in the telegram to me. I will get you the same amount before the release, if you teach me
I am not kidding))
really not kidding!
I'll even teach you how to hide bitcoins so that they won't be found later

 

[Man]

The Balashikha City Court of the Moscow Region sentenced former investigator Marat Tambiev to 16 years in a maximum security colony, accused of receiving a record bribe in bitcoins, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports from the courtroom.

"To find Tambiev Marat Khamidovich guilty ... to sentence him to 16 years in prison with serving in a maximum security colony," the judge announced the verdict.

He was also fined 500 million rubles. Tambiev was banned from holding positions in government agencies for 12 years, he was deprived of the rank of "Major of Justice".

During the debate, the state prosecution asked to assign Tambiev 20 years in a strict regime colony with a fine of 500 million rubles and, as an additional punishment for 15 years, to ban him from holding positions in state bodies, as well as to deprive him of the special rank of "Major of Justice". The defense asked the court to acquit Tambiyev.

His former subordinate Kristina Lyakhovenko was sentenced to 9 years in prison (the prosecutor asked for 13), a ban on holding positions in state bodies for 8 years and deprived her of the rank of "senior lieutenant of justice".

 

[Man]

Bitcoins of convicted former investigator Tambiev have begun to be transferred to the state.

Bailiffs have begun to transfer more than 1 billion rubles in bitcoins of former investigator of the Russian Investigative Committee Marat Tambiev, convicted in a case of a record bribe in bitcoins, to the state. This follows from the materials that TASS has reviewed.

Enforcement proceedings have been opened based on a court decision, according to which Tambiev's bitcoins in the amount equivalent to more than 1 billion rubles, which are stored on a hardware wallet for cryptocurrency Ledger Nano X, are transferred to the state.

In addition, according to the materials reviewed, the property of the former investigator has been seized as part of another enforcement proceeding. It was opened on December 20, 2024. Bailiffs are also collecting enforcement fees from Tambiev in the amount of 15 thousand rubles.