Profitable instead: Marat Tambiyev's elite property went to the state
Former Moscow investigator Marat Tambiyev, convicted in the case of a record cryptocurrency bribe, has become 35.5 million rubles poorer. The Nikulinsky court seized property and cash in this amount from him on January 17 at the suit of the Prosecutor General's Office. This is the second suit of the supervisory agency against Tambiev - earlier the court ruled to return 1,032 bitcoins to the state, which is about 2.2 billion rubles at the time of the bribe. The prosecutor's inspection revealed that with a rather modest official income, Tambiev did not deny himself the purchase of luxury real estate near Moscow, cars and motorcycles. On what assets of the ex-investigator passed into the ownership of the state, - in the material "Izvestia".
What property of Tambiyev seized by the court
Nikulinsky district court of Moscow on January 17 satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor General's office to seize from the former investigator Marat Tambiyev property and cash totaling 35.5 million rubles.
In October 2023, Balashikha City Court of Moscow region sentenced a former employee of the Moscow Investigative Committee to 16 years in a strict regime colony and a fine of Br500 million in the case of a record bribe of 2.7 thousand bitcoins (about Br7.3 billion). He was also stripped of the rank of major of justice.
The basis for the lawsuit of First Deputy Prosecutor General Anatoli Razinkin was the federal law "On control over the compliance of expenditures of persons holding public office and other persons with their income. The prosecutors found an obvious discrepancy between Tambiyev's official income and his expenses.
<p>Nikulinsky District Court</p>
According to the official declaration, Tambiyev's only source of income was his salary - from 2011 to 2022 he earned 12.1 million rubles. At the same time, the value of his property as of 2024 was almost three times more - Br33.1 million.
Having studied the financial situation of the former investigator, prosecutors concluded that in fact he "is the owner of elite real estate in the Moscow region and expensive motorcycles". This real estate - residential and four non-residential premises in Odintsovsky district, as well as motorcycles Ducati and Honda with a total value of 19.5 million rubles, the court ruled to seize to the income of the state.
Prosecutors concluded that Tambiyev had acquired the property "as a result of his illegal actions from sources of income not provided for by law." By doing so, he "came into conflict with the interests of the service and society, to which he had pledged under oath to abide by the laws, not allowing the slightest deviation from them," the suit says.
Tambiyev, the document says, "decided to use his powers contrary to the interests of the service, to the detriment of society and the state in order to enrich himself and his relatives." He did not provide evidence of the acquisition of the disputed property on legitimate income.
In addition, in 2018, Tambiyev and his wife purchased a 2015 Audi Q7 car for 3.8 million rubles, and the next year - a 2016 Porsche Macan S car for 3.3 million rubles. He also had an apartment in Cherkessk worth 8.9 million rubles. However, by the time the lawsuit was filed, the apartment in Cherkessk and the cars had been transferred to third parties.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, this property was purchased on unconfirmed income. The supervisory agency asked the court to recover just over 16 million rubles from Tambiyev in favor of the Russian Federation - as the equivalent of the value of the property, the legality of which he could not prove. The court granted this point as well.
A drop in the sea
Seizure of property from present and former civil servants and law enforcement officers is an established practice of the prosecutor's office, Konstantin Trapaidze, chairman of the Your Legal Attorney Bar Association, told Izvestia. By seizing illegally acquired property, the supervisory agency shows that it acts in the interests of the state.
- Corruption of law enforcement officers is latent, it is not easy to establish such illegal actions, - said the lawyer. - Usually it happens in the form of an operational experiment, but there are difficulties in proving the fact of corruption.
Nevertheless, Tambiyev's case is not the only one, said Konstantin Trapaidze.
- Remember Interior Ministry Colonel Zakharchenko with his millions of cash, connections and participation in schemes to work with banks," he said. - Compared to him, Tambiyev is a less interesting character, who was able to get quite a large sum within the framework of his actions. Perhaps this is far from all the money he may have had in his possession.
In 2023, 1,914 people were convicted in Russia for taking bribes, said Egor Panin, a partner at Avex Law Office. The statistics do not distinguish the exact proportion of law enforcers among them, but in practice, cases like Tambiyev's remain exceptional.
- Unlike Zakharchenko, who became famous for his enrichment through corruption schemes in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Tambiyev "became famous" due to a record bribe in cryptocurrency and the use of the latest technologies to hide criminal proceeds, - said the lawyer. - The property recovered from Tambiyev looks like a drop in the ocean of Russia's budget compared to the Zakharchenko case. However, we should not forget about the recovery of 1032 bitcoins from him as well.
The total value of criminal assets seized by prosecutors over the past five years exceeded 760 billion rubles, Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov said in December 2024. The seized objects - movable or immovable property - are transferred to the management of the Federal Property Management Agency and then put up for auction, Yegor Panin recalled. The cash is transferred to the treasury.
Such lawsuits are filed not only against convicts, but also against their relatives or loved ones, if it is proved that the property was acquired with criminal proceeds, summarized the lawyer.
