Russian Investigator Gets 16 Years for $65M Bitcoin Bribe

Marat Tambiyev, a former mid-level investigator in Russia, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison after being caught accepting a bribe of 1,032 bitcoins, valued at approximately $65 million, from the very hackers he was investigating.

The bribe came from members of the Infraud Organization, a hacking group that Tambiyev was assigned to investigate while employed by the Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR).

The Bribery Scandal in Russia

Tambiyev has been with the ICR since 2011, handling significant cases in various investigative departments throughout Russia. He advanced to become the head of the investigative unit in Moscow’s Tverskoy district. The compromised officer reportedly received a substantial bribe on April 7, 2022, from the hacker group.

A lawsuit submitted in the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow revealed that Tambiyev took the BTC bribe with the promise that the group’s illicit assets would remain untouched, enabling two of its members—Kirill Samokutyaevsky and Konstantin Bergmanov—to evade imprisonment.

When the bribe was initially uncovered in early 2023, the 1,032 bitcoins had a value of 1.6 billion rubles, surpassing Russia’s previous bribery record of 1.4 billion rubles, which had been disbursed in several parts.

A search of Tambiyev’s apartment in Moscow uncovered an Apple MacBook Pro, which investigators accessed several months later. Inside, they discovered a folder named “Pension,” containing keys to two online wallets holding the 1,032 bitcoins. This stash was seized and moved to a Ledger Nano X hardware wallet.

Tambiyev claimed he was innocent, asserting that he was set up and that his activities had facilitated the recovery of some criminally obtained funds. In relation to the same case, Kristina Lyakhovenko, a subordinate of Tambiyev, received a nine-year prison sentence. Legal representatives for both defendants announced intentions to appeal.

Additionally, in 2021, two Infraud members—Sergey Medvedev from Russia and Marko Leopard from North Macedonia—were sentenced to five to ten years in US federal prison for their roles in trafficking stolen personal data, credit card information, malware, and other illegal items.

Mass Arrests Across Russia

Despite a more accepting attitude toward the cryptocurrency sector following a complete ban in 2022, Russia continues to proceed cautiously, engaging in multiple investigations related to illegal activities. Recently, nearly 100 suspected cybercriminals associated with the anonymous payment system UAPS and the cryptocurrency exchange Cryptex were arrested by authorities.

These individuals were implicated in various illegal operations, including money laundering and bank card sales. The US Treasury Department noted that Cryptex has processed more than $51 million from ransomware attacks and over $720 million in transactions linked to services frequently utilized by Russian cybercriminals, such as mixing services and the sanctioned exchange Garantex.