Russian authorities start liquidating 1 billion rubles in Bitcoin in landmark bribery case

Russian bailiffs are inside the technique of liquidating higher than 1,032 Bitcoin, worth roughly 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 beforehand served as a chief investigator inside the Tver District of Moscow, was found accountable of accepting 1,032 BTC as a bribe to protect the pursuits of Infraud Group, the hacking group he was investigating.

The earlier investigator was accused of negotiating a maintain members of this group, the place he accepted Bitcoin in change for not confiscating their illegally obtained property.

Authorities found the Bitcoin stash saved on Tambiev’s laptop computer and models (a Ledger Nano X {{hardware}} pockets) all through a search of his condominium in Moscow. The Bitcoin was later seized as part of a courtroom ruling by the Nikulinsky Court docket docket of Moscow in 2023.

Last October, Tambiev was sentenced to 16 years in jail and fined 500 million rubles (roughly $5.2 million) for his actions. He has moreover been stripped of his rank and is prohibited from holding any authorities positions for 12 years following his launch.

His former subordinate, Kristina Lyakhovenko, obtained a 9-year sentence in a standard regime penal colony for accepting bribes and completely different prices. A third defendant, Dmitry Gubin, former deputy head of the investigative division for the Tverskoy District, stays at large.

In response to TASS, together with the Bitcoin already being seized, the Prosecutor Widespread’s Office filed one different lawsuit to seize further of Tambiev’s property, along with a motorcycle, precise property, and further Bitcoin, as they contemplate he acquired it by way of illegal means.