Russia has sentenced a former chief investigator Marat Tambiyev to 16 years in prison for accepting a bribe of 1,032 Bitcoin worth $65 million from a group of hackers.
As per the probe, last year, Tambiyev had accepted BTC bribes from the hacker group “Infraud Organization” which was being investigated by the Russian Investigation Committee. Tambiyev had also agreed not to seize the Bitcoin illegally obtained by the organization and received part of the illegal assets on April 7, 2022.
On investigating the matter further, in 2023, Russian authorities found these Bitcoins under a file called “Pension” on a Mac computer. The disclosure of the huge sum raised eyebrows, as the authorities concluded that the money was unreasonable given his work could only bring him 11.7 million rubles ($144,000).
Tambiyev, however, has denied the charges and claimed that he was being framed. He is considering appealing the verdict along with his colleague Kristina Lyakhovenko, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for the same charges in the same case.
Russia had arrested Andrey Sergeevich Novak, the alleged leader of the Infraud Organization in January 2022, for stealing more than $560 million in its seven years of activity. The hacker group was an international cybercrime organization, operating between October 2010 and February 2018, and was involved in carding, stealing personal credit cards and online banking information.
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