Translated material
Wives of Dead Souls
“Apartment mafia” of police officers, lawyers and notaries discovered in Moscow
The Perovsky District Court of Moscow recently issued a guilty verdict in one of the criminal cases initiated as part of a large-scale investigation into scams in the capital's real estate market. This investigation, as it turned out, is now being conducted by law enforcement agencies. The head of the department of precinct police officers of the Ryazan district of Moscow, Sergei Mazikin, lawyer Fedor Gromov, his cousin Tatyana Gromova and Andrei Rodionov were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. All of them were found guilty of fraud, which involved taking possession of the municipal apartment of a deceased person, which by law should have gone to the state.In this case we are talking about only one apartment. But investigators noted that this was just one of many similar episodes uncovered during the ongoing investigation into the “apartment mafia,” which included police officers, lawyers and notaries. Within its framework, the number of apartments stolen under the same scheme already amounts to dozens, but the intelligence services believe that one can only guess about the real scale of the activities of the schemers. So far, the investigation is identifying more and more similar cases and new accused, the number of whom also goes into dozens.
Policeman Mazikin, lawyer Gromov and their accomplices were identified by employees of the department for combating economic crimes (OBEP) of the Department of Internal Affairs of the North-Western Administrative District (NWAD) of Moscow during the investigation of another criminal case of apartment fraud, initiated by the Department of Internal Affairs of the North-Western Administrative District (NWAD) back in 2005. It, in fact, marked the beginning of a general investigation on this topic. During the investigation, it turned out that such scams have actually turned into a well-established business that has been operating successfully since at least 2000 and in which a variety of people are involved.
As investigators found out, informants - police officers or housing authorities - identified apartments in which lonely pensioners died. Then their accomplices forged various documents, including wills, real estate purchase and sale agreements, marriage and death certificates, BTI certificates, etc.
After this, the imaginary wife of the deceased entered the scheme, who retroactively put her signature on a fake marriage registration form and registered herself in the apartment of the deceased “spouse.” And a week later she appeared at the passport office in the role of a grief-stricken widow. Having entered into inheritance rights, such “wives” issued a power of attorney to realtors to collect documents and privatize “their” apartments with its subsequent sale to a bona fide purchaser. After the purchase and sale transaction, the participants in the scams divided all the proceeds among themselves according to the amount of their “contribution” to the common cause.
The investigation of the case, which was considered by the Perovsky Court, began in December 2005 after Muscovite Lyudmila Samoilova came to the OBEP North-West Administrative Okrug. She said that she had received an unusual offer - her acquaintance, a certain Rodionov, asked her to make a backdated fake will for the apartment in which the owner died. According to the woman, she knew many notaries and sometimes helped friends find the right specialist who could accept them without waiting in line. She had never participated in any illegal transactions, so she was surprised by Rodionov’s proposal, but, frightened, agreed to participate in the scam. However, after the conversation, she went straight to the police.
The detectives immediately invited the woman to participate in an operational experiment in order to stop the fraud and identify all the criminals. Having provided Samoilova with audio and video equipment, the operatives sent her to a meeting with Rodionov, at which the latter gave her a piece of paper indicating that a will should be made in the name of Alexander Kharlamov to Tatyana Gromova and dated February 5, 2003. For this, Rodionov promised to pay Samoilova 94 thousand rubles. At the same time, Rodionov emphasized that a “real document” is needed, since he himself can masterfully produce the left one. Also in the conversation, he promised to “monitor the situation” so that everything would be “no scams.”
To identify the entire criminal chain, the operatives had to turn to one of the capital's notaries for help, who also agreed to participate in the operational development. Within a few days, the notary, using a photocopy of the deceased Kharlamov’s passport, prepared all the necessary documents so that the criminals would have no doubt about their authenticity - an alphabetical book, a register and the will itself for the apartment. After this, Samoilova handed over a copy of the will to Rodionov to check its authenticity. The latter, as detectives established, soon handed over the document to Mazikin, an employee of the Ryazansky police department.
Soon, as follows from the case materials, Mazikin’s subordinate, district commissioner Sergei Tyutyugin, came to the notary with a request for all copies of extracts from the alphabet book, the register and the will itself on behalf of the deceased Kharlamov. The notary gave all copies to the district police officer, assuring them that the will was genuine and there were no changes to the will. After this, Rodionov told Samoilova that she had done an excellent job and handed over the promised money. But the operatives did not detain him, realizing that the apartment would soon be put up for auction and then all the participants in the fraud would become known.
After some time, Tatyana Gromova actually contacted the Moscow Registration Committee, for whom a fake will had to be made, and, having presented it, she declared her right to inherit Kharlamov’s apartment in the house on Zelenodolskaya Street, 9, bldg. 1, as next of kin. After completing all the necessary documents, Gromova advertised the sale of the apartment for almost 4.4 million rubles. In order not to miss the scammers, the detectives decided to act as buyers. After viewing the apartment, they paid a deposit, and after signing the purchase and sale agreement, they deposited the rest of the money in a safe deposit box, handing over the documents for the apartment to the registration chamber.
After this, all the accumulated operational materials on apartment swindlers were transferred to the Moscow prosecutor's office to initiate a criminal case. On June 13, 2006, while receiving money from the bank, Mazikin and the realtor who was selling the apartment on behalf of Gromova were detained. The rest of the swindlers were detained at apartments and workplaces. During the searches, detectives discovered and seized from Rodionov many forms of various organizations and a whole suitcase with false seals of registry offices, housing offices, law enforcement agencies, notary offices and other government agencies, not only in Moscow, but also located in other regions.
Soon, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court, at the request of the investigation, arrested Sergei Mazikin, Sergei Tyutyugin, Andrei Rodionov and Tatyana Gromova. Also involved in the case was the latter’s cousin, lawyer Fyodor Gromov, since some detainees during interrogations named him as the organizer of the entire scam. In addition, the investigation already had materials from wiretapping telephone conversations in which he discussed the details of the fraud. In relation to Fyodor Gromov, the case was separated into separate proceedings, since the investigation took several months to obtain permission from the court to bring the lawyer, who according to the law is a so-called special subject, to criminal liability. Having learned about this, Gromov went on the run and was put on the wanted list. He was detained only in August 2007. He refused to testify, explaining to the investigation that he only provided legal assistance to his cousin Tatyana.
Nevertheless, the court agreed with the investigation’s version that he was also directly related to the theft of the apartment. As follows from the verdict, in September 2005, district police officer Tyutyugin, while visiting the residents of building No. 9, building 1, on Zelenodolskaya Street, discovered the mummified corpse of the owner, Alexander Kharlamov, in one of the apartments. He immediately removed from the deceased’s apartment the passport and title documents for real estate - the death certificate of Kharlamov’s mother, a copy of the application for the transfer of the apartment into Kharlamov’s ownership, after which he handed over all the documents to his boss Mazikin. As follows from the case materials, Mazikin told his friend lawyer Gromov about these documents. And he suggested that the district police officer “properly” appropriate the apartments of deceased citizens.
As Mazikin said during interrogations, Gromov assured him that they would not commit any crime, since the deceased owner of the municipal apartment had no relatives and only the state, which was very reluctant to protect its rights, would claim the inheritance. It was lawyer Gromov, as follows from the case materials, who came up with a plan for selling the apartment - to retroactively draw up a will for his cousin Tatyana, after inheriting the apartment, sell the apartment and divide the money.
During the investigation of this case, Sergei Tyutyugin died of heart failure in the pre-trial detention center, so the criminal prosecution against him was dropped, but everyone else was brought to trial.
Rodionov, taking into account his repentance, was sentenced to three years in prison, Mazikin - to four years and deprived of the right to hold positions in the law enforcement system for a period of three years. Brother and sister Gromov did not admit their guilt at the trial, and the court gave them a more severe punishment. The lawyer received six years in prison, Tatyana Gromova - five and a half years.