According to a local news report, Russian official Marat Tambiev is accused of accepting 1032.1 Bitcoin worth of $28 million as a bribe from the hacker group he was investigating. Kommersant newspaper said it was the largest single bribery recorded in Russia.
Tambiev served as the head of the investigative department of the committee for the Tverskoy district of Moscow until he was fired for corruption. When searching his apartment in Moscow a few months ago, authorities found 1032.1 BTC in Tambiev’s laptop. Prosecutors also noted that Tambiev had received 11.7 million rubles ($150,000) during his tenure on the investigative committee.
According to the investigation, Tambiev received bribes on April 7, 2022 from a hacker group called Infraud Organization Mark and members of the group Konstantin Bergmanov and Kirill Samokutyaevsky. At the time, Tambiev was bribed in exchange for not confiscating their property. The hackers then got suspended sentences of 2.5 to 3.5 years and recovered about $8.6 million in Bitcoin.
Tambiev will be taken to court on June 5 when prosecutors have confiscated all of his ill-gotten gains. Tambiev has been fighting allegations and denying corruption. He also recently sued the Investigative Committee and asked for reinstatement because the investigation was ongoing and the allegations were unproven, but were dismissed.
Russia is one of many countries that are actively establishing a crypto-regulatory framework. The country recently canceled plans to establish a national exchange, focusing on developing regulation for these platforms instead.
Russia is becoming more open about its laws and regulations on crypto since the United States, the EU, and other countries introduced or significantly expanded sanctions to include Vladimir Putin and other government officials. One of the largest banks in Russia, Rosbank, recently completed cross-border transactions in cryptocurrency.
In addition, Russia is also the world’s second largest country in mining crypto in the first three months of the year. According to reports, mining in the country receives government support, which subsidizes a new facility in Siberia 100 megawatt from the power grid.
Despite the above positive moves, cryptocurrencies are still not used as a form of payment in the country. In July 2022, President Putin banned the use of digital assets as a method of payment for goods and services.