Russian official detained for accepting record bribe of $28M BTC

According to a local news report, Russian official Marat Tambiev is accused of accepting Bitcoin (BTC) worth $28 million as a bribe from the hacker group he was investigating. This is the largest recorded amount received in a single bribery instance in Russia, as per the report.

Tambiev served as the head of the investigative department of the committee for the Tverskoy district of Moscow until he was fired for being corrupt. The report said the authorities found 1032.1 BTC hidden in Tambiev’s laptop, which was confiscated during a search of his Moscow apartment a few months ago.

The Deputy Prosecutor General noted that Tambiev had received 11.7 million rubles (less than $150,000) during his tenure in the Investigative Committee. The fact that he owned Bitcoins worth $28 million “indicates the receipt of property from sources not provided for by law,” he said.

According to the authorities, Tambiev received the bribe on April 7, 2022, from the hacking group Infraud Organization Mark and members of the group Konstantin Bergmanov and Kirill Samokutyaevsky. The report said that Tambiev took the bribe in exchange for not seizing the illegal assets of the hackers he was investigating.

The report noted that the hackers received suspended sentences of 2.5 to 3.5 years. The authorities recovered around $8.6 million worth of Bitcoin from them.

As per the report, Tambiev is due to be produced in court on June 5, when the prosecutor will seek to confiscate all of his ill-gotten funds. He has been fighting the allegations and has denied the corruption charges. He recently sued the Investigative Committee and sought reinstatement because the investigation was ongoing and the charges had not been proven. But the lawsuit was dismissed after the corruption was proved by a departmental audit, the report said.

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