A Moscow court has sentenced half a dozen law enforcement officers, including two high-ranking Investigative Committee officials, to lengthy prison terms for fabricating evidence in an extortion scheme.
The officers were found guilty on Monday of forming a criminal gang, bribery, and fabricating evidence. According to prosecutors, they conspired to seize control of a major company by initiating a fabricated criminal case against its shareholders. They also demanded a 15 billion ruble ($200 million) bribe from their victims to drop the false charges.
The gang included two Investigative Committee department heads, Sergey Romodanovsky and Rustam Yusupov, both sons of senior law enforcement officials. Romodanovsky’s late father, Konstantin, led the Russian Federal Migration Service from 2005 to 2016.
Three other suspects – an investigator, an FSB officer, and a counterintelligence official – were named as accomplices. A lawyer acted as an intermediary between the gang and its victims.
All six defendants were sentenced to between 14 and 19 years in prison. They pleaded not guilty, and their lawyers have vowed to appeal the verdict.
According to investigators, the criminal group was formed in 2019 by the law enforcement officials and two alleged “fixers”: Kirill Kachur, who has been designated as a foreign agent in Russia, and his father, Vitaly. Both are reportedly residing in the United Arab Emirates, as Russia has placed them on an international wanted list.
The gang targeted the Merlion Group, a major conglomerate active in fields ranging from IT to household appliances and office furniture retail. They staged an arson attack on a house belonging to the conglomerate’s former CEO and used it to launch a fabricated assassination attempt probe against its shareholders. The victims were initially detained, but their lawyers succeeded in transferring the case to the Investigative Committee’s central office, where the scheme was uncovered.
Separately, according to prosecutors, Yusupov and Romodanovsky also accepted a bribe of 109 million rubles ($1.42 million) to help suspects in another case avoid prosecution, and demanded €10 million ($11.88 million) for similar interference in a third case.