Policeman jailed for taking ‘largest bribe in Russian history’

A Moscow court has sentenced former investigator Marat Tambiev to 16 years in a maximum-security penal colony and a fine of 500 million rubles ($5.2 million) in what is considered the largest bribery case in modern Russian history.

The second individual sentenced in the case, Tambiev’s former subordinate Kristina Lyakhovenko, received a 9-year sentence in a general-security penal colony. Both Tambiev and Lyakhovenko were stripped of their ranks and barred from serving in state authorities for 12 and 8 years, respectively, following their release.

The judge found Tambiev guilty of “taking a bribe on a particularly large scale” as well as abuse of authority, as reported by the Russian news agency TASS from inside the courtroom. Meanwhile, Lyakhovenko was convicted of accepting a bribe, abusing her power, and falsifying evidence.

Both have denied any wrongdoing. Despite this, Tambiev was unfazed by a journalist's question regarding his record as the holder of the largest bribe.

”If one is to be, then be the best!” he declared to the press in court.

According to case documents, while serving as a major in the Moscow district Investigative Committee, Tambiev was involved in Russia’s crackdown on the local branch of the international cybercrime syndicate known as the Infraud Organization. He extorted the group, offering to sequester 14 billion rubles ($147 million) worth of cryptocurrency that the organization had accumulated without handing it over to the authorities.

Four members of the cybercrime syndicate – who were all eventually sentenced to prison – offered Tambiev and Lyakhovenko roughly half of the criminal organization’s 14 billion ruble fund as a bribe. However, they reported the extortion to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), leading to Tambiev's arrest in 2022 and Lyakhovenko's arrest in September 2023.

On Tuesday, the court ordered the recovery of 7.8 billion rubles ($80 million) from the defendants, along with an additional 277 million rubles from Tambiev in compensation for his crimes. Additionally, Tambiev was slapped with a 500 million ruble ($5.2 million) fine.

The Infraud Organization was created in 2010 by Ukrainian national Svyatoslav Bondarenko. The U.S. Justice Department stated that the group had 10,901 registered members globally as of 2017 and described it as “one of the largest cyberfraud enterprises” ever prosecuted by the DOJ.

In 2018, U.S. authorities charged 36 suspected members of the Infraud Organization for their wide range of criminal activities. The organization caused more than $530 million in actual losses to victims and aimed to take $2.2 billion, according to the DOJ.