Marat Tambiev, a detective from Moscow who works for Russia’s Investigative Committee, is suspected of accepting a record bribe worth over 1.6 billion rubles (€18.46 million) in Bitcoin cryptocurrency, Kommersant reports.
The investigation on the matter says Tambiev received a bribe of 1032,1 Bitcoins, worth over €18.46 million as of 30 January 2023 (as of 3 June, the price stands at over €25.38 billion).
Tambiev allegedly received these assets last April as a bribe from Mark Bergman, Konstantin Bergman, and Kirill Samokutyayevsky, members of the Infraud Organization hacker group. Their criminal cases were investigated by the agency. The suspects eventually got away with a conditional sentence.
Tambiev stored photos of the keys that grant access to his virtual wallets on his laptop, in a folder titled “pension”. It took detectives several months to hack the laptop.
Kommersant says this bribe was an all-time record for a law enforcement officer. The previous record was set by Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko who was found guilty of receiving bribes totalling 1.4 billion rubles (€16.15 million) over ten years.
A Moscow court will be considering the confiscation of the detective’s assets on 5 June. Tambiev is reported to plead not guilty.
