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In St. Petersburg, officer of Interior Ministry’s Internal Security Department held on suspicion of taking bribe of 50 million rubles

The Saint Petersburg Directorate of the Investigative Committee has initiated criminal proceedings against the Head of the 17th unit (Zapad) of the Interior Ministry’s Internal Security Department Yuri Timchenko suspected of taking a bribe under Part 6 of Article 290 of the RF penal Code and against Konstantin Marchenkova and Sergei Zinovenko suspected of intermediacy in bribery under Part 4 of Article 291 of the RF Penal Code.

According to investigators, Timchenko was aware that the Saint Petersburg Directorate of the Investigative Committee was looking into evasion of paying more than 1 billion rubles in taxes by Delovue Linii, a limited liability company, and that at least 1.5 billion rubles of the said company was arrested. From November to December 2016, he many times demanded a representative of the said company to give him vial middlemen Marchenkov and Zinovenko a bribe of some 100 million rubles. The bribe was intended for assisting in releasing the company’s bank accounts from under arrest and in dropping the charges. Timchenko demanded that part of the bribe of 50 million rubles was to be given to him no later than on 8 December 2016 and the rest 50 million after the company’s accounts were released.

On the evening of 8 December 2016, in an underground parking lot in Saint Petersburg, Marchenkov and Zinovenko received replica of 50 million rubles from a representative of the company to pass it to Timchenko. After that they were detained by agents of the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region office of the Federal Security Service. The agents also held Timchenko in whose office they found 350 thousand rubles in cash.

At present all of the suspects are expecting arrest and charges. The investigation is ongoing.