The FSB officer "protected" Perm carders for bribes worth 160 million rubles.
In the Savelovsky court of Moscow, a sentence was passed to members of a criminal group from the Perm Region, who were found guilty of illegal circulation of payment funds. Six defendants provided Visa and MasterCard credit card details of such major American banks as Banc of America, Capital One Banc, and Fidelity Information Services. This data allowed customers to make purchases without the knowledge of the real owners of payment cards.
The most severe punishments in this case were received by two defendants-Alexander Kovalev and Artem Zaitsev. They were sentenced to real terms of imprisonment-4 and 3.5 years in a general regime colony, respectively. The remaining defendants, including Denis Pachevsky, General Director of Saratovfilm Film Company LLC,Artem Bystroykh and Artem Zaitsev, employees of Transtechcom LLC and Get-net LLC, respectively, as well as Vladislav Gilev and Yaroslav Solovyov, were sentenced to pre-trial detention or forced labor.
The court session was attended by both the accused who were in custody and escorted to the courtroom, and those who had previously changed the preventive measure to a milder one-a ban on certain actions. The latter arrived at the court on their own, accompanied by lawyers.
Initially, the state prosecution demanded that all the defendants be found guilty under Part 2 of Article 187 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (illegal turnover of payment funds committed by an organized group, up to 7 years in prison). The prosecutor asked to appoint the group members from 5,5 to 6 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony, as well as confiscate their money and cars to the state income.
According to the investigation, members of the criminal community provided customers, mainly Russian citizens, with Visa and MasterCard credit card details. This data made it possible to make purchases bypassing the regulatory authorities in our country. The scheme worked as follows: the client transferred the required amount to the card details provided by the criminals, and then immediately purchased the desired product or service with this money. At the same time, the real holder of the compromised card has not received any information about the operations performed for some time.
However, soon fraud with bank cards was revealed, and the investigation was taken up by the US FBI. American law enforcement officers assumed that the hacker group operates from the territory of Russia, and passed the relevant data to Russian colleagues. After that, employees of the K department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation identified the attackers, using, among other things, an operational combination for conducting a control purchase, and in early 2022 detained the suspects in Perm. The defendants were transferred to Moscow, where the Basmanny Court, at the request of the investigation, took them into custody.
The investigation also revealed the involvement of Grigory Tsaregorodtsev, an employee of the regional FSB Department, in an illegal scheme created by hackers. According to investigators, the officer received bribes from criminals in the amount of 160 million rubles for general patronage of their activities and non-prosecution. And when the members of the group were detained, Tsaregorodtsev tried to convince them not to disclose information about his involvement to the investigation, promising in return to transfer the prisoners to the Perm pre-trial detention center and stop their criminal prosecution in the future.
A criminal case was opened against Grigory Tsaregorodtsev himself on charges of taking a bribe on a particularly large scale (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In April 2023, Tsaregorodtsev was detained and transferred to Moscow, where, by the decision of the Basmanny Court, he was taken into custody. According to media reports, at a debate in the Perm Garrison Court, the military prosecutor demanded that Grigory be sentenced to 9 years and 8 months in a penal colony and a fine of 320 million rubles. The officer himself denied the charges of bribery, insisting on re-qualification for fraud, since he did not have the opportunity to really influence the course of the investigation of the hackers case.
Returning to the case of the hacker group, the active cooperation of a number of defendants with the investigation allowed the lawyers of Pachevsky, Bystry and Zaitsev to achieve a change in the measure of restraint for them a year ago to prohibit certain actions.
During the trial, the defense tried to get the most lenient sentences for the remaining defendants, insisting on assigning terms that had actually already been served in the pre-trial detention center, or conditional sentences. The lawyers referred to the lack of evidence that the card data sold during the control purchase could have been used for payments at all, and also to the fact that all the defendants were not familiar with each other before the indictment.
As a result, judge Dmitry Neudakhin decided to reduce the sentence in comparison with the requirements of the state prosecution. Only two defendants received real terms of imprisonment-Alexander Kovalev received 4 years in a penal colony, Artem Zaitsev-3.5 years (he was taken into custody in the courtroom).The rest were given conditional sentences: Vladislav Gilev and Yaroslav Solovyov were given sentences that they had already served in a pre-trial detention center. Denis Pachevsky and Artem Bystroykh were sentenced to 3 years and 3 months of forced labor each, with a deduction of 13% of their salaries to the state income. The court also granted the demand for confiscation of property belonging to criminals.
The defendants and their lawyers were generally satisfied with the verdict. Even those who are assigned real prison terms can expect to be released soon. The lawyers said that they will not appeal against the imposed penalties yet, although they intend to discuss the issue of contesting the confiscation of property with their clients.
In the Savelovsky court of Moscow, a sentence was passed to members of a criminal group from the Perm Region, who were found guilty of illegal circulation of payment funds. Six defendants provided Visa and MasterCard credit card details of such major American banks as Banc of America, Capital One Banc, and Fidelity Information Services. This data allowed customers to make purchases without the knowledge of the real owners of payment cards.
The most severe punishments in this case were received by two defendants-Alexander Kovalev and Artem Zaitsev. They were sentenced to real terms of imprisonment-4 and 3.5 years in a general regime colony, respectively. The remaining defendants, including Denis Pachevsky, General Director of Saratovfilm Film Company LLC,Artem Bystroykh and Artem Zaitsev, employees of Transtechcom LLC and Get-net LLC, respectively, as well as Vladislav Gilev and Yaroslav Solovyov, were sentenced to pre-trial detention or forced labor.
The court session was attended by both the accused who were in custody and escorted to the courtroom, and those who had previously changed the preventive measure to a milder one-a ban on certain actions. The latter arrived at the court on their own, accompanied by lawyers.
Initially, the state prosecution demanded that all the defendants be found guilty under Part 2 of Article 187 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (illegal turnover of payment funds committed by an organized group, up to 7 years in prison). The prosecutor asked to appoint the group members from 5,5 to 6 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony, as well as confiscate their money and cars to the state income.
According to the investigation, members of the criminal community provided customers, mainly Russian citizens, with Visa and MasterCard credit card details. This data made it possible to make purchases bypassing the regulatory authorities in our country. The scheme worked as follows: the client transferred the required amount to the card details provided by the criminals, and then immediately purchased the desired product or service with this money. At the same time, the real holder of the compromised card has not received any information about the operations performed for some time.
However, soon fraud with bank cards was revealed, and the investigation was taken up by the US FBI. American law enforcement officers assumed that the hacker group operates from the territory of Russia, and passed the relevant data to Russian colleagues. After that, employees of the K department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation identified the attackers, using, among other things, an operational combination for conducting a control purchase, and in early 2022 detained the suspects in Perm. The defendants were transferred to Moscow, where the Basmanny Court, at the request of the investigation, took them into custody.
The investigation also revealed the involvement of Grigory Tsaregorodtsev, an employee of the regional FSB Department, in an illegal scheme created by hackers. According to investigators, the officer received bribes from criminals in the amount of 160 million rubles for general patronage of their activities and non-prosecution. And when the members of the group were detained, Tsaregorodtsev tried to convince them not to disclose information about his involvement to the investigation, promising in return to transfer the prisoners to the Perm pre-trial detention center and stop their criminal prosecution in the future.
A criminal case was opened against Grigory Tsaregorodtsev himself on charges of taking a bribe on a particularly large scale (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In April 2023, Tsaregorodtsev was detained and transferred to Moscow, where, by the decision of the Basmanny Court, he was taken into custody. According to media reports, at a debate in the Perm Garrison Court, the military prosecutor demanded that Grigory be sentenced to 9 years and 8 months in a penal colony and a fine of 320 million rubles. The officer himself denied the charges of bribery, insisting on re-qualification for fraud, since he did not have the opportunity to really influence the course of the investigation of the hackers case.
Returning to the case of the hacker group, the active cooperation of a number of defendants with the investigation allowed the lawyers of Pachevsky, Bystry and Zaitsev to achieve a change in the measure of restraint for them a year ago to prohibit certain actions.
During the trial, the defense tried to get the most lenient sentences for the remaining defendants, insisting on assigning terms that had actually already been served in the pre-trial detention center, or conditional sentences. The lawyers referred to the lack of evidence that the card data sold during the control purchase could have been used for payments at all, and also to the fact that all the defendants were not familiar with each other before the indictment.
As a result, judge Dmitry Neudakhin decided to reduce the sentence in comparison with the requirements of the state prosecution. Only two defendants received real terms of imprisonment-Alexander Kovalev received 4 years in a penal colony, Artem Zaitsev-3.5 years (he was taken into custody in the courtroom).The rest were given conditional sentences: Vladislav Gilev and Yaroslav Solovyov were given sentences that they had already served in a pre-trial detention center. Denis Pachevsky and Artem Bystroykh were sentenced to 3 years and 3 months of forced labor each, with a deduction of 13% of their salaries to the state income. The court also granted the demand for confiscation of property belonging to criminals.
The defendants and their lawyers were generally satisfied with the verdict. Even those who are assigned real prison terms can expect to be released soon. The lawyers said that they will not appeal against the imposed penalties yet, although they intend to discuss the issue of contesting the confiscation of property with their clients.
