The Moscow Directorate of the Investigative Committee is conducting an investigation against acting head of the Northwestern Administrative District Property Ownership Registration Department of the Moscow Office of the Russian State Registration Service Roman Aushev and his deputy Dmitry Palferov. They are charged with a crime under Part 6 of Article 290 of the RF Penal Code (bribery on a very large scale).

According to investigators, in May 2016, Aushev and Palferov conspired to take a bribe on a very large scale from a representative of a law firm for issuing a repeated certificate on state registration of property. On 26 May, Palferov received from the representative 350,000 US dollars in cash near the Northwestern Administrative District Property Ownership Registration Department and was then detained by the police.

At present both of the suspects have been arrested. Investigative operations are underway to catalogue the evidence and see if there have been other crimes. The investigation is ongoing.