An investigator working in Moscow has been caught with a record-breaking bribe paid by a hacking group in cryptocurrency. According to a Russian press report, the corrupt official accepted millions of dollars’ worth of bitcoin and saved the digital money for his retirement years.
Russian Investigator Took Over 1,000 BTC in Bribe Money From Hackers, Report
Investigators in the Russian Federation are now working on a corruption case involving one of their former colleagues, the Kommersant daily reported. The news comes as a court in Moscow prepares to consider a lawsuit in which prosecutors seek to confiscate his crypto stash.
Marat Tambiev was hired in December 2011 and climbed the professional ladder to eventually become head of the Investigation Department in Moscow’s Tverskoy district. Officially, his salary was his only income and together with his family members did not possess any expensive property or savings in rubles, foreign currency or crypto.
Within the probe launched against Tambiev for large-scale bribe-taking, investigators and prosecutors found that he owns a total of 1032.1 BTC the value of which, as of January 30, 2023 was estimated at 1.662 billion rubles (almost $24 million at the time).
The defendant allegedly received the cryptocurrency in April 2022 from members of the hacking group Infraud Organization, Mark and Konstantin Bergmanov and Kirill Samokutyaevsky, for not seizing their assets. Tambiev was leading the investigation into their criminal case.
