Assets Seized from Former Investigator Accused in WEX Bribery Case

Assets valued at over 2.1 billion rubles have been seized in the investigation of a cryptocurrency bribery case involving former head of the BST of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Georgy Satyukov. This was reported by RIA Novosti.

According to the investigation, Satyukov and his subordinate Dmitry Sokolov offered protection services to Alexey Bilyuchenko (Ivanov), a system administrator of the WEX cryptocurrency exchange. Bilyuchenko, who faced trial for embezzling platform funds, made a deal with the Prosecutor General’s Office and disclosed the bribery details.

From March 2019 to October 2021, through Sokolov’s mediation, Bilyuchenko transferred at least 2119 BTC and 10,016 ETH to wallets controlled by Satyukov—equivalent to approximately 4.9 billion rubles.

The funds were distributed across numerous accounts in several banks and invested in securities. The accomplices registered real estate primarily in the names of their partners and girlfriends.

The former police officers have fled abroad and have been placed on an international wanted list. Satyukov is charged with accepting bribes on a large scale, while Sokolov is charged with facilitating these bribes.

In July, courts seized residential properties belonging to the defendants, with a cadastral value exceeding 50 million rubles.