Russia to seize record bitcoin bribe of 1bn rubles for state coffers

As part of enforcement proceedings, bailiffs have begun transferring 1,032.1 BTC—valued at more than 1bn rubles at the time of the offence—seized from convicted former investigator Marat Tambiev in a record-bribe case to the state, TASS reported.

The funds will be moved from a Ledger Nano X hardware wallet to a government account.

At the prosecution’s request, Tambiev’s property has also been frozen for confiscation, as he could not prove its lawful origin. The assets include a Honda motorcycle, several properties in the Moscow region and bitcoins worth several million rubles.

The former investigator must also pay enforcement charges of 15,000 rubles.

He was detained in spring 2022, when he headed the Investigative Committee’s unit for Moscow’s Tverskoy district. According to investigators, he received more than 2,718 BTC (7.3bn rubles at the time) and $1.5m from members of the hacker group Infraud Organization in exchange for not seizing their assets.

In October 2024, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison and fined 500m rubles.

His former subordinate Kristina Lyakhovenko was sentenced to nine years in prison for accepting a bribe, abuse of office and document forgery. A third defendant—the former deputy head of the Investigative Committee’s unit for the Tverskoy district, Dmitry Gubin—has been arrested in absentia. He is believed to have fled abroad.

According to testimony from group member Mark Bergman, the actual bribe demanded by Tambiev totalled 2,718.6 BTC. Lawyer Vadim Bagaturia says 654 BTC “disappeared” from the case file.