Security forces detained billionaire Ibragim Suleymanov in connection with a 2004 contract killing

In Moscow, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB detained billionaire Ibragim Suleymanov. This was reported by TASS and Kommersant with reference to sources, as well as the telegram channel “112” close to the security forces and the anonymous project “VChK-OGPU” .

“Ibragim Suleymanov was detained in Moscow; he is suspected of committing a crime under Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder),” said the agency’s interlocutor. He clarified that we are talking about a murder of past years. “112” writes that we are talking about a murder in 2004.

Update at 18:58 Moscow time: The Basmanny District Court of Moscow sent Suleymanov to a pre-trial detention center.

According to the Cheka-OGPU, he is suspected of two counts - of organizing the murder of the chairman of the trade union committee of ground service workers at Vnukovo Airlines, Gennady Borisov (he was attacked in the entrance of his house with a knife) in 1999, and the head of the Federal Service for Financial Recovery and Bankruptcy, Georgy Tal (he was shot at in the center of Moscow) in 1999. 2004. Two days ago, security forces detained the perpetrator of Tal’s murder, and he testified against Suleymanov, writes the Cheka-OGPU.

Kommersant confirms the information that the reason for the prosecution was the murder of Tal and that the perpetrator was detained together with Suleymanov.

The Cheka-OGPU writes that the suspected perpetrator’s name was Abakar Darbishev, and he died in the operatives’ car immediately after he gave his testimony.

The criminal case was investigated by the central office of the Investigative Committee.

“Ibragim Suleymanov is considered one of the most non-public and influential billionaires in Russia,” writes the Cheka-OGPU.

In 2007, Suleymanov was tried on charges of fraud and money laundering, found guilty and sentenced to 10 years and 8 months in prison. He continued to do business after he was released.

Back in 2024, Ibragim Suleymanov and his relative Rasul Suleymanov were beneficiaries of the Sirena-Travel IT company, according to the reports. According to market estimates, 80% of tickets in Russia are sold through its services. Just yesterday, Kommersant wrote that online travel agencies complained about Sirena Travel to the FAS.

“Sirena-Travel” occupies a unique dominant position in the market, since tickets for flights of many airlines cannot be issued through other systems, Dmitry Krivosheev, general director of the “Raketa” platform, told the publication. He noted that until 2022, tickets for flights of large companies, such as Aeroflot and S7, could be ordered in foreign global distribution systems, but now they are not available to Russian companies.

Sirena Travel's revenue in 2024 amounted to 6.83 billion rubles, an increase of 16% year-on-year. Net profit increased by 20%, to 2.9 billion rubles.

In 2023, Sirena Travel was hacked by hackers and obtained data about airline passengers and their insurance. The resulting databases contained almost 3.5 billion records of passengers’ phone numbers and 664.6 million records with personal data, flight numbers, routes, fares, ticket cost data, and so on. The data covered the period from 2007 to 2023.