Russian authorities begin to liquidate 1 billion rubles in Bitcoin in a marked bribery case

Key Takeaways

Russian agents are currently transferring Bitcoin from Marat Tambiev to state revenues.
The case involves the confiscation of 1,032.1 BTC, marking the largest crypto bribery scandal in Russia.

Russian agents are currently liquidating more than 1,032 Bitcoins, worth about one billion rubles, seized from Marat Tambiev, a former investigator of the Russian Investigative Committee who was convicted in a high-profile crypto bribery case , TASS. reported Thursday.

Tambiev, who was previously the chief investigator of Moscow's Tver District, was found guilty of accepting 1,032 BTC as a bribe to protect the interests of Infraud Organization, the hacking group he was investigating.

The former inspector was accused of making a deal with members of this group, where he accepted Bitcoin in exchange for not handing over their ill-gotten funds. legal.

Authorities found the Bitcoin stash stored on Tambiev's computer and devices (a Ledger Nano X hardware wallet) when they searched his Moscow apartment. The Bitcoin was later seized as part of a court ruling by the Nikulinsky Court in Moscow in 2023.

Last October, Tambiev was sentenced to 16 years in prison and fined 500 million rubles (about $5.2 million) for his actions. He is also stripped of status and banned from holding any government positions for 12 years after his release.

His deputy, Kristina Lyakhovenko, received a 9-year sentence in a general administrative penal colony for accepting bribes and other charges. The third defendant, Dmitry Gubin, former deputy head of the investigative department for the Tverskoy District, is still at large.

According to TASS, in addition to the already seized Bitcoin, the Prosecutor General's Office filed another lawsuit to seize more of Tambiev's property, including a motorcycle, buildings real, and Bitcoin in addition, because they believe that he got it through illegal means.