Translated material
Zakharchenko's record has been broken. During searches, 12 billion rubles were seized from FSB colonels
In the apartments of three former FSB colonels during searches, money and valuables worth 12 billion rubles were found, found out Kommersant . The investigation suggests that at least the same amount is on the accounts of nominees and companies that were used by the accused. Kirill Cherkalin, an employee of the “K” department of the FSB Economic Security Service, is accused of taking $850,000 in bribes for “actions or inactions” in relation to a certain commercial structure and “general patronage.” Two of his former colleagues, Dmitry Frolov and Andrey Vasiliev, are accused of fraud on an especially large scale.
From Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko, who set a record for the amount of funds seized during searches, the Prosecutor General's Office found almost 4 billion less.
What did the colonels do?
- Directorate "K" of the FSB, in which the defendants worked, is engaged in counterintelligence in the credit and financial sphere and exchanges data with the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance. His employees often accompanied high-profile cases against high-ranking officials and businessmen.
- Kirill Cherkalin, an employee of the “K” department of the FSB Economic Security Service, oversaw the fight against crime in the banking sector. Dmitry Frolov - Cherkalin's predecessor, dismissed on compromising grounds. Andrei Vasiliev is a subordinate of Cherkalin and Frolov.
Detention and version of the prosecution
- Cherkalin was detained on April 25 by officers of the Department of Internal Security (USB) of the FSB and arrested the same evening by the 235th garrison military court. Together with him, Frolov and Vasiliev were detained. The Basmanny Court arrested them the next day.
- Cherkalin, the head of the 2nd department of the K department of the FSB, is accused of taking bribes (Article 290 of the Criminal Code) in the amount of $850,000 for a year and a half. The bribe-giver is a certain Mr. Nazarov, who, according to the investigation, paid him in the period from 2013 to 2015 “for general patronage.” Cherkalin's case is being handled by military investigators. The defense asked the Moscow District Military Court to cancel his arrest, but on May 16 the court refused to do so.
- Frolov and Vasiliev are under another article - 159 of the Criminal Code, fraud on an especially large scale. The investigation believes that in 2011, former FSB officers forced businessman Sergei Glyadelkin to transfer to them a share in the authorized capital of one of his companies under the threat of criminal prosecution.
Find out more. The FSB is a closed structure, but high-profile corruption scandals and criminal cases against its employees sometimes make it clear how the department interacts with business. Here are just some of the details of the charges against Frolov and Vasiliev.
- 49-year-old Dmitry Frolov worked in the K department until 2013 and was responsible for the banking and financial sector. Its leader was Viktor Voronin, who worked for the FSB from 2004 to 2016. Voronin resigned after initiating a high-profile criminal case against businessman Dmitry Mikhalchenko. Both previously admitted that they had known each other for a long time and were friends.
Read also Businessman Mikhalchenko received a lenient sentence after transferring assets to Murov's wife
- The Investigative Committee accuses Frolov and his former subordinate Andrei Vasiliev of embezzling 490 million rubles from businessman Sergei Glyadelkin in 2011. According to the IC, the security forces convinced the businessman that he could be prosecuted, and thus forced him to give them a stake in the Yurpromconsulting investment company. Further, Frolov, according to the prosecution, at his own discretion disposed of her property for 490 million rubles.
- Glyadelkin could have come to the attention of the security forces when, in 2011, he was a victim in a case of extortion of $ 2 million from him by the former vice-mayor of Moscow Alexander Ryabinin. Ryabinin promised to give Glyadelkin contracts for the development of the Levoberezhny district of Moscow for a bribe.
Directorate "K" is considered one of the most influential in the structure of the FSB. After merging with the “N” department, it not only controls the banking sector, but also fights organized crime, smuggling, drugs, oversees the Central Bank and the presidential administration.