Digital take: how an employee of the "K" department could launder billions in the crypt

The Prosecutor General's Office demanded that the property of Georgy Satyukov, a former employee of the department "K" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (engaged in combating crimes in the field of information technology), be turned into state income, a source told Izvestia. According to the supervisory authority, Satyukov and another person involved in the case are accused of receiving about 5 billion rubles from Alexey Ivanov, the administrator of the WEX crypto exchange, for the lack of criminal prosecution. At the same time, more than 2.3 billion rubles could be legalized through affiliated persons (including relatives of the accused). Over the years of the "immaculate service" of the current defendant in the case, his relatives have managed to become owners of dozens of apartments, commercial premises, luxury cars, as well as villas in Dubai. The details of the case are in the Izvestia article.

How funds were withdrawn

The property of the former employee of the department "K" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for several billion rubles was demanded to be turned into state revenue by the Prosecutor General's Office, a source told Izvestia. According to investigators, Georgy Satyukov, a former employee of the department for combating crimes in the field of information technology, illegally acquired assets and registered them with relatives and a number of affiliated persons.

The criminal case against Satyukov was opened in August 2023, according to court documents (Izvestia has them). The second defendant is his colleague Dmitry Sokolov, who is considered an intermediary. They are accused of receiving 5 billion rubles from Alexey Ivanov, the administrator of the WEX (formerly BTC‑e) crypto exchange. The ex-employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs threatened him with criminal prosecution. From March 2019 to October 2021, Satyukov and Sokolov, who acted as an intermediary, received 2,119.5 bitcoins and 10,016 ethereums to their controlled cryptocurrency wallets.

At the same time, during the years of service — from 2013 to 2021 - Satyukov's official income barely exceeded 9.8 million rubles.

In the appeal, Satyukov's lawyer emphasized that the criminal case was initiated illegally, by an incompetent body and official. He pointed out that Alexey Ivanov transferred cryptocurrency as a bribe in parts, made transfers while in Novosibirsk, and transferred the password from the crypto wallet in St. Petersburg.

"In the materials submitted to the court, there is no information that would confirm the transfer of cryptocurrencies to his client in Moscow, and therefore the defender believes that the investigator of the GSU IC of the Russian Federation illegally, outside his competence and territorial jurisdiction, opened a criminal case," the case file says.

Satyukov was arrested in absentia and put on the international wanted list. Lawyers for his alleged accomplice Sokolov said that he died in Mexico on July 9, 2024.

Alexey Ivanov reported on Satyukov's activities — he concluded a pre-trial cooperation agreement with the Prosecutor General's Office. For this, he was released from criminal liability for paying bribes, but he received three years and six months for embezzling funds from the exchange's clients. In 2024, Ivanov pleaded guilty to embezzling 3.17 billion rubles from the cryptocurrency exchange. According to the investigation and the court, in 2018, he used access to the online platform of the crypto exchange and excluded access to it by the owner, his representatives and users. The person involved appropriated cryptocurrencies of various names in the amount equivalent to more than 18 billion rubles.

Initially, the injured party demanded to recover 3.1 billion rubles from Ivanov, but in early 2024, the amount of damage in the civil lawsuit increased to 18.2 billion rubles, as a representative of the victims referred to the difference between the market value of the cryptocurrency and tokens assigned by the defendant, as well as compensation for damages recovered by the verdict of the Meshchansky court, follows from the court materials (there are at Izvestia).

However, at the end of September 2025, the Supreme Court lifted the recovery of 18 billion rubles from Ivanov (Izvestia has a definition).

What property does the Prosecutor General's Office require to be seized?

Now the Prosecutor General's Office has filed a lawsuit with the Zyuzinsky Court of Moscow demanding that the movable and immovable property of Satyukov, his relatives and Sokolov be transferred to the state income, according to the court card. The first meeting is scheduled for December 8, 2025.

The total value of the property illegally acquired by Satyukov and registered to Sokolov exceeded 2.3 billion rubles, a source told Izvestia. Satyukov registered part of the assets acquired with corrupt proceeds in 2020-2021 for Sokolov and relatives, in particular, his ex-wife, brother, father and mother.

He charged his accomplice with a Porsche Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid for 14.69 million rubles and a Porsche 911 Turbo S for 18 million rubles, 13 apartments in St. Petersburg with a total value of more than 250 million rubles, parking spaces and commercial premises, a villa in Dubai worth about 1.467 billion rubles. The total value of the assets that were registered to his accomplice amounted to more than 1.9 billion rubles.

In addition, after searches in Sokolov's apartments, seven Patek Philippe wristwatches worth a total of 100.3 million rubles and a metal fountain pen (just over a million rubles) were seized. They also found cash in the amount of $201 thousand and 145 thousand rubles.

Satyukov's ex-wife, Elena Golovnina, opened six bank accounts, apartments and parking spaces in Moscow in the amount of 89 million rubles, which significantly exceeds her official income of 19,761 rubles from 2018 to 2020.

According to the case file, the ex—employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs opened 36 bank and brokerage accounts for his brother Anton Satyukov, and also issued an apartment and five commercial premises in Saratov, Turinsk, Izhevsk and Moscow, a BMW car for a total of 81.6 million rubles. He has 902 million rubles in his accounts. At the same time, his official income from 2020 to 2023 amounted to 708.2 thousand rubles. 29 accounts were opened in the names of the father and mother.

In addition, Satyukov is charged with receiving illegal income from securities transactions from 2020 to 2022 in the amount of 1 billion rubles.

"The value of the seized property greatly exceeds the legitimate incomes of all participants in the criminal scheme, which, according to the prosecutor's office, confirms Satyukov's systematic corruption violations," the source said.

What other schemes are used by corrupt officials

The case of Georgy Satyukov is a classic example of how "family" schemes for asset withdrawal worked in Russia, when the real owners dissolved the property according to relatives, denominations and friends, hoping that they would protect it from possible state claims, said Alexey Gavrishev, lawyer, managing partner of AVG Legal.

— The scheme looks old, but it is still working: shares in relatives are issued for key assets, while the beneficiary himself manages the business, makes decisions, distributes money and uses real estate as his own. Formally, "nothing belongs," in fact, everything is under the control of one family," the expert said.

According to him, there are a lot of similar cases now. The Prosecutor General's Office has been consistently "unwinding" such structures for several years, from regional developers to large industrial groups.

— There are many examples when an enterprise is transferred to a wife and students, and the CEO, who was involved in the development of corruption articles, continues to drive official cars and make decisions, — Alexey Gavrishev added. — Or cases where an official transferred assets to funds for his children, thinking that it was like a shield. But the logic of the state has changed: if money is earned at the expense of official position, the property of loved ones is now also considered as part of the general illegal enrichment.

The situation related to the requirement of the Prosecutor General's Office to transfer property acquired by a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and affiliated persons to the state's income raises the acute problem of illicit enrichment and asset withdrawal, agreed Vladimir Kuznetsov, chairman of the All-Russian trade Union of mediators. The claim is based on the mechanism provided for by the legislation on the control of expenses of persons holding public positions and their compliance with income.

Asset withdrawal schemes aimed at hiding assets from creditors or the state are a common phenomenon in corporate and corrupt practices. The most common examples include, for example, transactions with an undervalued value: the sale of assets to affiliated structures at a price significantly lower than the market price, which allows you to quickly withdraw liquid assets from the threat of foreclosure.

— It can also be the issuance of fictitious loans or the assumption of guarantees for the obligations of affiliated companies, which creates artificial accounts payable and allows you to "transfer" assets, — the lawyer explained. — Or the attackers transfer key assets, such as real estate, equipment, to newly created legal entities that do not have encumbrances, with the subsequent bankruptcy of the main debtor.

A claim for the recovery of property to the state's income is a quick and effective way to deprive corrupt officials of illegally acquired assets, since in this process it is enough to prove the discrepancy between expenses and official income, experts emphasized.