11 June 2019
Dmitry Zakharchenko was the deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s economic security and anti-corruption office. He was arrested in September 2016 on bribery and abuse of power charges. Authorities seized 9 billion roubles from Zakharchenko’s apartments in 2017, which was then valued at around $125 million.
A Moscow court has sentenced him to 13 years in prison on charges of large-scale bribery and obstruction of justice. He was also ordered to pay 117 million roubles ($1.8 million) in fines, the state-run RIA Novosti news outlet reported Monday.
Zakharchenko got a discount card from restaurateur Mehdi Douss, which allowed him to save $46,000 at the restaurant La Maree in exchange for protection. He took an $800,000 bribe from Douss. He was charged for obstruction of justice by notifying finance director at Nota-Bank Galina Marchukova about the upcoming searches in the bank. He was also stripped of his titles and state awards. The Moscow Times reported.
In another case authorities have seized $185.5 million from former Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) official Colonel Kirill Cherkalin. He was the head of the FSB economic security department’s financial counterintelligence support unit. He was charged with bribery of $850,000 last month. He received money from commercial entities, primarily from heads of banks, for general protection. FSB is the main successor of KGB.
Kirill Cherkalin
Cherkalin, as well as two former colleagues who had been apprehended on fraud charges, may have stashed an additional $185 million in shell companies, the Kommersant business daily reported.
Dmitry Frolov and Andrei Vasilyev, Two of Cherkalin’s former colleagues, have also been apprehended on charges of fraud. Frolov and Vasilyev, according to RBC, are accused of stealing $75.5 million from a businessman locked in a court battle with Moscow’s former deputy mayor in 2011. Two other FSB agents were arrested in an alleged $1 million Bitcoin extortion scheme in April.
The Kremlin says the arrest of senior officers of Russia’s top spy agency reflects a no-holds-barred fight against corruption.
