The Russian authorities could possibly be including $30 million price of property seized from Georgy Satyukov to its treasury. The previous Ministry of Inside Affairs worker is believed to have accepted bribes price $30 million and used them to purchase varied luxurious property.
Russian prosecutors are searching for to grab property price over 2.1 billion rubles from former Ministry of Inside Affairs official Georgy Satyukov, who allegedly accepted $184 million in Bitcoin and $30 million in Ethereum in bribes.
How did a Russian police official turn into a millionaire?
A former Ministry of Inside Affairs worker named Georgy Satyukov was recognized by Russian prosecutors because the proprietor of varied luxurious property, which Russian authorities consider have been bought with bribes from the operators of WEX crypto alternate.
These luxurious property embrace 13 residences in Russia, a number of industrial properties in St. Petersburg, and a villa within the UAE. Satyukov’s property holdings additionally embrace a $1 million property within the Russian metropolis of Saratov registered in his brother’s title.
Past actual property, investigators found two Porsche Cayenne Turbo automobiles registered in Satyukov’s title, all bought after 2021, together with seven Patek Philippe watches, an ST Dupont Paris watch, and different jewellery valued at over $1.3 million.
A search of Satyukov’s checking account revealed money reserves of $540,000, in addition to $38,500 in euros, and $14.2 million in Russian rubles held by him and his quick members of the family.
Satyukov started working on the ministry in 2001 and, between 2019 and 2021, headed a top-secret division codenamed “Okay” that specialised in investigating monetary fraud instances and cybercrime. Throughout his complete time as a Ministry of Inside Affairs worker, Satyukov’s wage would have added as much as simply $126,165.
The Prosecutor Normal’s Workplace has filed a lawsuit demanding that movable and immovable property belonging to Satyukov, his family members, and Dmitry Sokolov, Satyukov’s colleague on the Ministry of Inside Affairs, who is taken into account an middleman within the bribery scheme, be transferred to state earnings.
What was the WEX Alternate?
Earlier than its collapse, the WEX alternate was a preferred platform that emerged in September 2017 as a successor to BTC-e.
BTC-e was based in July 2011 by Alexander Vinnik and Aleksandr Bilyuchenko, and as of February 2015, it dealt with round 3% of all Bitcoin alternate quantity. Nonetheless, the U.S. Justice Division shut the alternate down in July 2017 when it charged Vinnik with working an alleged worldwide cash laundering scheme.
The alternate was accused of facilitating legal actions as a result of it had no anti-money laundering or know-your-customer processes and picked up nearly no buyer knowledge.
WEX promised to compensate former BTC-e customers for his or her losses, however in the summertime of 2018, WEX purchasers’ wallets have been instantly frozen, and funds may solely be eliminated at a 90% loss. Roughly $450 million in cryptocurrency vanished from the alternate.
It was Alexey Ivanov, who pleaded responsible to embezzling 3.17 billion rubles from the cryptocurrency alternate, who pointed authorities to Satyukov after concluding a pre-trial cooperation settlement with the Prosecutor Normal’s Workplace.
In alternate for his cooperation, Ivanov was launched from legal legal responsibility for paying bribes however obtained a three-year and six-month sentence for embezzling funds from the alternate’s purchasers.
Satyukov was arrested in absentia and positioned on a global wished record. His alleged confederate, Sokolov reportedly died in Mexico in July 2024, in line with authorized representatives. Each males are believed to have fled Russia to keep away from prosecution. If convicted within the trial scheduled to start December 8, their seized property could possibly be transferred to the Russian Treasury.
