The court in Balashikha near Moscow has received a criminal case against a former Moscow investigator and his subordinate, who are accused of receiving a bribe in bitcoins from the hacker group Infraud Organization.

The Supreme Court of Russia changed the territorial jurisdiction at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, which believes that over a long period of work in the system of the capital's Investigative Committee, the accused investigator Marat Tambiev acquired connections in the judiciary of Moscow. Despite the defense's arguments that this is nothing more than an assumption, the case was sent to a court near Moscow.

Marat Tambiev is accused of receiving a bribe of $1.5 million and 2,718 bitcoins (7.3 billion rubles) from a member of the hacker group Mark Bergman. And his subordinate Kristina Lyakhovenko is suspected of abuse of power and bribery.

According to investigators, Major Tambiev shared part of the bitcoins with his deputy Dmitry Gubin, who is now wanted, and investigator Kristina Lyakhovenko.

Marat Tambiev, who is in a pre-trial detention center, does not admit guilt, denies receiving cryptocurrency and believes that the hacker group’s lawyer, Roman Meyer, himself embezzled clients’ funds, trying to soften his fate with false testimony.

Kristina Lyakhovenko, taken into custody in 2023, also denies involvement in taking a bribe and exceeding official authority.

The Balashikha City Court will begin hearing the case in June 2024, and the hearings will probably be held behind closed doors.

Earlier, the Mendeleevshchina telegram channel reported that the co-owner of the collapsed BTC-e (Wex) cryptocurrency exchange, Alexander Klimenko, was released on bail of $3 million.