Why didn’t Colonel Zakharchenko save his billions? Alcoholism, mental hospital and more: who Alexander Zakharchenko really was.

21.11.2019

People in Russia love cash. They are loved both by citizens who are at odds with the law, and by swindlers of all stripes. Businessmen and officials, young and old, provincials and Muscovites - everyone knows what “black cash” is and has little trust in banks.

Dmitry Zakharchenko was immediately nicknamed the billionaire colonel. Versions began to pile up about how the werewolf in colonel's uniform got 9 billion rubles worth of currency.

After all, there was no precedent in the history of Russia for such a colossal amount to be found in someone’s home. Even corrupt governors did not reach this level.

Elite residential complex "Dominion" in a prestigious area. The price per square meter is $10,000. One of the apartments here belonged to the governor of Sakhalin Khoroshavin, the other belonged to a defendant in the Oboronservis case with the funny surname Nedobor. There are rumors that singer Nikolai Baskov has a mansion here. And next to such people, Colonel Zakharchenko’s sister, Irina, who until recently lived in the Rostov outback, acquired a four-room living space. The apartment cost her 85 million rubles.

She did not clutter it with unnecessary furniture. My brother used it more often, filling the free space with large checkered bags. But one day the police came here.
Shocked that the modest Zakharchenko, whom his colleagues considered almost a loser, owned such money, they began to confiscate the found currency. It took two days to count it.

Zakharchenko was arrested on September 10, 2016. It all started with an amount that, compared to the billions found, seems simply insignificant - 7,000,000 rubles. He was accused of receiving a bribe from a businessman on December 25, 2015, promising his “roof.”

The colonel then sluggishly denied this: “What nonsense, we found something to remember.” And on September 8, 2016, special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB conducted a search in Zakharchenko’s apartment and office.

The colonel was calm, did not demand lawyers, did not rush to call high patrons. He even made fun of him: he asked that the package of found condoms be included with the seized documents. But when he heard the address of the next search, his face changed and froze in place.

The money found in the apartment of Zakharchenko’s sister weighed one and a half tons. The cash was in boxes, bags and huge bags. And this was no longer a measly bribe of several million rubles.

In the meeting room he constantly asked for a drink. The judge introduced those present to short biography multi-billionaire: 38 years old, in government since 2001, owner of as many as three higher education. At court hearings, he behaves modestly, but with dignity. Some even feel sorry for him. And Dmitry Zakharchenko completely denies his involvement in the tons of “black cash” found on him.

Tons of money

Our people saw what mountains of cash look like for the first time at an exhibition at the prosecutor's office in 1988. They were brought by investigators from Uzbekistan who were investigating the Cotton Case. In fact, for the first time the authorities started talking about the fact that there is organized crime and rich people in the country who may have countless amounts of gold and money.
And in the nineties, the country was already inundated with “black cash”. All sorts of markets and shops proliferated, taking money but not clearing receipts.

Almost everyone then worked without work records and official contracts and received their salaries in cash that was not transferred anywhere. Banks opened at an alarming rate and carried out grandiose scams. Just look at the cost of the famous “Chechen advice notes”, from which nine hundred banks suffered in 1992-1994. And part of the cash received through such “linden” schemes was sent to Chechen militants.

In August 1994, the MMM pyramid collapsed. During a search at the head office in Varshavka, investigators saw one and a half billion rubles for the first time in their lives. The money was taken away in an unknown direction in seventeen trucks. Where? What happened to them? This question torments millions of Russians today, when they remember Dmitry Zakharchenko’s billions. What if they were given back into criminal hands?

After the arrest of the colonel, it turned out that he had a lot of luxury real estate, a real collection of beautiful apartments registered in the names of various relatives. Ulyana’s nine-year-old daughter has a 5-room apartment in the Imperial House residential complex on Yakimanka for 250 million rubles. But she doesn’t live there, but in the Pyramid residential complex, in an apartment for 30 million. The colonel’s mother owns a three-room apartment in the Shuvalovsky residential complex with 160 square meters for 50 million.

My sister has an excellent apartment for 85 million in the Dominion residential complex, where the billions were found. And the pearl of the collection is my father’s huge apartment in the Barkli Plaza residential complex on Prechistenka for 400 million.

In addition, the father owns apartments in an elite residential complex in Barcelona, as well as deposits in foreign banks worth €300 million. Have Zakharchenko’s relatives thought that one day their luxurious life will come to an end anyway? But Dmitry Zakharchenko’s parents, formerly simple villagers, apparently blindly believed their son, who convinced them that he was simply doing business, as thousands of other people do in the huge capital. And he has everything under control, and he came to an agreement with everyone.

In the native village of Mashlykino, near Rostov, they still cannot believe that the gold medalist of the local school and the werewolf in uniform Dmitry Zakharchenko are one and the same person. The Zakharchenko family did not stand out in the village. We lived like everyone else: two children, an ordinary house, a simple farm of geese, ducks and a vegetable garden. There wasn't even a car. So where to look for the origins of evil? The son of two rural teachers. This was once a boy who made the school proud. Zakharchenko’s parents’ salary was small, but they never talked about money in the house. They didn’t whine even in the hungry nineties, when villagers were sometimes paid in canned food and pots.

But it is still impossible to create a beautiful legend about poor people who live with dignity. Dima Zakharchenko's dad Victor pawned him by the collar, and his passion for the bottle almost ruined his life. According to his fellow villagers, he drank often, which is why he was removed from his position as director.

“Citizens, what do I have to do with this? - Dmitry Zakharchenko, who was arrested, was surprised at the meeting. “I haven’t seen my sister for a hundred years, dad himself became a millionaire in his old age and bought real estate abroad.” But almost immediately after the colonel ended up in the pre-trial detention center, testimony began to pour in, eloquently speaking about the scope of his criminal affairs.

The first to invest was Colonel German Gorbuntsov, nicknamed “The Black Banker,” the former owner of several Russian banks and financial companies. He was involved in money laundering scams and accused of major thefts. Escaped arrest to London. Miraculously he survived the assassination attempt there.

Zakharchenko sat with Gorbuntsov on a salary of $150,000 a month, and the scheme suited both of them. The colonel, without doing anything special, had a stable income. Gorbuntsov carried out fraud with “black cash” without fear of going to jail. For corrupt structures, such people are a gift. They are cared for and cherished.

Black cash "Master Bank"

The words “cash out”, “black cash”, “money laundering”, “fly-by-night companies” entered the Russian lexicon in the mid-nineties. Everyone unanimously hated the fat class of bankers who had proliferated and quite rightly suspected them of all sorts of frauds. Mikhail Kasyanov, as prime minister, signed documents on the transfer of billions of dollars to the IMF through the Bank of New York, aimed in 1998 to stabilize the ruble.

And dirty money earned from “Chechen advice notes”, profits from the arms and oil trade, as well as funds from defrauded depositors of Russian banks flowed there. And very high-ranking officials “protected” this channel for transferring billions abroad.

In November 2013, the nineties returned. Depositors broke into the offices of Master Bank in the hope of taking away their savings. This financial institution lured with high interest rates and collected 47 billion from citizens. After the license was revoked, the main office of “Master” was stormed by riot police and police. Documents and “black accounting” were seized, confirming the industrial scale of cash withdrawal and money laundering. "Master-Bank" was the main Russian "laundry". The searches in the departments, many of which the security forces had to take almost by storm, lasted two weeks.

Over the course of ten years, this bank created a huge ATM system - the second most powerful after Sberbank. Plastic cards were issued to homeless people, students and anyone who wanted to earn a little extra money. They traveled around the cities and withdrew cash. Fake reports, loss of capital, questionable loans being issued left and right. This bank transferred 20 billion to companies affiliated with shareholders.

And the biggest sin is cash transactions through fake “short-lived enterprises.” The Central Bank estimated their value at two hundred billion rubles.

But the organizers of this gigantic “laundromat” managed to flee abroad. The Bulochnikov family of bankers consisted of wife Nadezhda, head of the board of directors, husband Boris, chairman of the board, and son Alexander, deputy of the pope. The damage from their activities is estimated at 61 billion rubles. They “bleached” the money abroad. The cost of the process from cashing to “whitening” was 8-20% of the amount.

How much money was found on Zakharchenko?

Many experts believe that Zakharchenko’s billions should also have gone abroad. It's no secret what huge sums are withdrawn from our country every year. As a rule, this figure does not fall below $150 billion.

Zakharchenko once wanted to get a job in customs, but eventually found a lucrative position in the tax police. The future billionaire met rich people, managed to please his superiors, and got his first “feeding trough.” His career was rapid, no doubt someone had a hand in it.

Soon our hero moved to the capital and became an employee of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They say that his Rostov people sent him to Moscow. And until recently, while Zakharchenko was still free, he defended the Rostov clan with his breasts. It is no secret that in the security agencies (FSB, Ministry of Internal Affairs, State PR, Investigative Committee) there is a constant struggle between various clans.

When operatives discovered Zakharchenko had nine billion, he secretly told them that one bank had given him one and a half tons of cash for temporary storage. Soon, Galina Marchukova, financial director of Nota-Bank, testified against Dmitry Viktorovich.

The whole country learned about the thefts in this financial organization a year before Zakharchenko’s arrest. Then 26 billion disappeared from Nota. The main corporate clients of Nota-Bank were defense industry enterprises, and our “policeman” specialized in crimes in this area. He had the ability to open and close any cases related to cash withdrawal and other illegal banking transactions.

In January 2016, Zakharchenko warned Galina Marchukova that she would soon be called in for questioning, and big problems awaited Nota - the institution was about to be deprived of its license. The bank's management managed to hide 26 billion. Without a doubt, they were withdrawn in cash, because non-cash payments are much easier to track.

There is a version that Zakharchenko himself offered his sister Irina’s apartment to store bags with stolen money, assuring the bank management that absolutely no one would come to him. Who would look for “black cash” from a person whose profession is to mercilessly fight this evil! Irina’s housing, in fact, served as a safe deposit box in which a certain person in power stores money for high interest, knowing that no one will look there.

But if this is Nota Bank money, then where is the other 17 billion, since only 9 billion were found with Zakharchenko? The colonel's lawyers offered to pay his bail from his own pocket and part with the amount of 70 million. But the court left the “policeman” in pre-trial detention.

Cashers

In recent years, the licenses of banks with signs of “laundries” have been revoked one after another. There is a global process of cleansing the entire financial system of Russia. And it was started at the beginning of the 2000s by Andrei Kozlov, deputy chairman of the Central Bank. Andrei Andreevich began to close banks that were engaged in cashing and collaborated with the criminal world. But on September 13, 2006, he was seriously wounded with two shots to the head and neck. After a complex operation, he died without regaining consciousness. Without a doubt, the authorities were challenged.

Today there are much fewer banks left on the market. For cash withdrawals they now charge not 5, but at least 10-15%. It has become much more difficult to carry out operations with the “black cache”. Zakharchenko’s scheme was set up perfectly. A powerful “roof” in law enforcement agencies. He himself was a man in uniform. Cashing out with the help of such professionals can cost 20% of the amount. Apparently, they were not afraid to deal with him, because his position almost 100% guaranteed reliability and safety.

In his youth, Dima Zakharchenko believed that the most important thing was to study well. He didn’t wander around the yards, didn’t look after girls, and spent all his time poring over textbooks. After his son graduated from school, the family left for Rostov, and Dima entered Rostov University without any problems. He left the image of a nerd and began attending parties, but his studies still remained in first place.

The apartments of Zakharchenko and his sister were in prestigious buildings, but without fancy interiors for a lot of money. Our hero did not wear expensive watches and drove modest cars. Looked, as they say, like an official salary. If you trace the entire biography of Colonel Zakharchenko, you will not find any shocking episodes in it.
There is a version that the 1.5 tons of money found from the “billionaire” were not prepared to be sent abroad, but, on the contrary, returned to the Russian Federation. After all, President Putin called on businessmen to clear their foreign accounts. And now they, poor fellows, are thinking about how to do it cunningly. Despite the fact that the return mechanism is prescribed by law, it is quite uncertain. What will happen to this money and with whom it will have to be shared is not entirely clear.

Proof that the funds found on Zakharchenko came from abroad is the packaging of the US Federal Reserve. And experts have given birth to another version of the origin of this currency. It was allegedly needed in order to organize a color revolution in our country - the same as what happened in Kyiv in 2013. Overthrowing power costs a lot of money - so they sent cash from the United States.

But other experts consider this version unviable and say that everything is much simpler: there are dozens of figures like Dmitry Zakharchenko in the capital. On July 5, 2013, in the Novinsky Passage on the fifth floor of the inconspicuous company StandardInvest, another gang of “black cashers” was arrested. The group consisted of four hundred people. They were led by a certain Sergei Magin. They took him right with the phone in his hand. From morning to night he discussed who and how to cash out the money. Sergei Magin had several bank laundries. All the dishonest businessmen in the capital knew him.

In various offices associated with Magin, operatives seized one billion cash rubles and half a thousand stamps of “short-lived enterprises.” The scheme is simple: you and I enter into an agreement, you transfer it to me by bank transfer according to the agreement, and I give you the money in cash, but minus some percentage.

Magin could cash out any amount, give out cash in rubles, dollars, euros. The source of cash was the large Moscow markets “Sadovod” and “Moscow”. Historically, a huge amount of “black cash” was circulating here. Remember this fact: when the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB did an inspection at the Cherkizovsky market, they found three containers filled with dollars and euros.

Today it’s a shame to remember, but it was impossible for the operatives to penetrate Cherkizon. They were simply not allowed there by the market security service. But somehow the police still managed to shut down a branch of a large international structure here for the transfer of “black cash” to different countries.

Cherkizon's annual turnover was about 650 billion rubles. As time passed, the markets acquired a more civilized appearance. But they still remain a source of cash for numerous cashing companies.
122.3 billion rubles passed through Sergei Magin’s gang. Magin was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison and a fine of 1.5 million rubles. If he behaves well in prison, he will be released earlier. And he will be able to take advantage of the hidden wealth.

Zakharchenko Dmitry Viktorovich

At one of the hearings, the judge explained why Dmitry Viktorovich Zakharchenko cannot be released on bail: if he is free, he has all the levers that can hinder the investigation. But over time, the billionaire colonel stopped striving for freedom. He is now safer in prison than in freedom. He must be very scared. After all, serious people may decide that it is impossible to leave him alive.

Most likely, Zakharchenko kept someone’s common fund in Irina’s apartment on Lomonosovsky Prospekt. And they controlled the movement of this money very much dangerous people. For example, such serious representatives of the criminal world as Yaponchik and Ded Khasan, who were recently killed, were also participants in the “black cash market.” And their people usually accompanied the transit of cash cargo to other states.

The kings of the underworld have long been businessmen. They buy up large enterprises and play on the stock exchange. But they still have the habit of using the cache when making calculations. This is why we need such safe apartments, called “pools”. We must not forget that such money is materialized monstrous crimes; they are always associated with big amount corpses.

Why and why did Dmitry Viktorovich Zakharchenko take such mortal risks, because he didn’t need luxury? Everyone notes that the colonel lived relatively modestly. Journalists put forward a version that his passion for beautiful women ruined him. It is known that he had a partner, Marina, whom they met back in Rostov. But he left her because he met Yana Saratovtseva, a participant in the TV show “The Bachelor.” And she wanted a beautiful life. Zakharchenko showered her with luxurious gifts and took her on trips abroad. But he was in no hurry to get married - he still couldn’t explain himself to Marina.

And then Yana showed up at her house and said that her figure was clearly better, so the generous policeman would stay with her. He really took her as his wife, but quickly divorced after learning that she worked part-time as an elite prostitute.

At the GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Zakharchenko worked in the most trump division - “T”. He fought against economic crimes in the fuel and energy sector. Experts say that getting into this structure for an average position costs about a million dollars.

As already mentioned, the arrested colonel is from the village of Mashlykino, Rostov region. His parents moved to Moscow a long time ago, but they don’t forget their small homeland and are even building a big house there. Before their son's arrest, they often came here to give instructions to their workers. They have a large farm: in addition to construction, they have a huge vegetable garden by local standards.

Dima made a lot of money in Moscow. His mother, Valentina Nikolaevna, amazed the imagination of her neighbors with stories about how they settled in the capital: each family member has a separate apartment, his loving son takes his father to Switzerland for treatment, and they don’t count money at all.

Despite the fact that today corruption looks much more cunning than in the nineties, the media often entertain the public by demonstrating the latest wealth of some major officials or representatives of law enforcement agencies. The passion for cash is difficult to cure. The total weight of the money found on Alexander Khoroshavin was 200 kilograms. He kept a billion in his mansion. Gennady Lopyrev, Lieutenant General of the FSO, was found with the same amount.

Dmitry Viktorovich Zakharchenko kept some of the currency in the refrigerator and regretted that it was impossible to place one and a half tons of cash in it. After all, foreign money can seriously “get sick”. It was specially designed so that microorganisms would gradually “eat up” American bills.

Black cash

"Black cash" is usually transported by plane. In August 2007, a plane literally packed with euros landed at Sheremetyevo. Journalists found out that he arrived from Germany, and total there were €20 billion. But who was such a valuable cargo intended for? Customs officials claim that the journalists are telling lies. Yes, they often confiscate cash from passengers. They carry currency in boxes and bags. But there were no twenty billion euros, it’s just a story.

March 2009, cargo terminal of Vnukovo airport. Two dozen frightened individuals are scurrying around the armored vehicles. They accompanied the “black cash” that arrived from Dagestan. They all have ID cards as employees of the Makhachkala private security company Karat-1. 600 million rubles arrived in Moscow. The Dagestan cash contained a lot of money in bank packages, made a couple of days before being sent to the capital. And such flights were an established business for a huge gang of “black collectors”.

The delivery of eighty tons of cash to Moscow set a record. There were countless banks in Dagestan at that time. Many of them were called "sleepers." A couple of desks, a couple of employees, two or three operations a year. But each was worth hundreds of millions. The Republic was a huge “washing machine.” And what? After a long investigation, the seized money was returned to the head of the private security company, who brought it to Moscow. The leader of the “black collectors” was sentenced to 8 months for money laundering. And the policemen who stopped the flow of Dagestan “black cash” were punished for arbitrariness.

What will Dmitry Zakharchenko say in the end? Who will he pawn? Many say that the case has dragged on because he is furiously bargaining for his freedom. Apparently, he hopes for some help. The story has become too loud and bright, so all we can do is stock up on popcorn and wait for the outcome.

The country began counting colonel's money en masse on September 9, 2016. It was on that day that the existence of underground billionaire from the police. Now, almost a year and a half later, the name of Dmitry Zakharchenko has become a household name - if earlier they said “rich as Rockefeller,” now analogies are drawn with a native of our Ministry of Internal Affairs. In just a few days, Dmitry Zakharchenko from a person known only to his colleagues turned into an all-Russian star, a hero of the Runet and a symbol of the Russian Federation. What is Colonel Zakharchenko like and, more importantly, where do the millions come from? The versions of the origin of the money in this case, voiced by people close to the police officer, are perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the criminal case. In terms of the degree of absurdity and absurdity, they claim first place in any rating of outright nonsense. Because they can’t perceive anything other than nonsense. The first 9 billion rubles in dollars and euros in the apartment of the sister of the acting head of department “T” of the anti-corruption directorate (GUEBiPK) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, who received the nickname “Zakhar the Cunning” among his circle, were seized during searches in early September 2016. The reason for the searches was a special operation, as a result of which Zakharchenko was detained on suspicion of receiving a bribe of 7 million rubles from the former head and co-owner of the Rusengineering company Anatoly Pshegornitsky. A short time later, the operatives set up another money warehouse in the apartment of the colonel’s mother.

Reference:

Dmitry Zakharchenko, police colonel, candidate of economic sciences.

Graduate of Rostov State University.

In 2001 he began working in the tax police. In 2003, after the liquidation of the service, he transferred to the department for combating economic crimes of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Rostov region. And a year later, in 2005, he transferred to Moscow, where he became an employee of the Department of Economic Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

There is no information in open sources about the officer’s promotion through the ranks since 2005. It is known that Dmitry Zakharchenko’s official salary for the entire 2015 amounted to three million rubles.

For several years, Zakharchenko served in the “P” department of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (industry), overseeing the fight against crime in the consumer market, for which he received the nickname “Sausage Man” on suspicion of “protection protection” for food industry enterprises.

Dmitry Zakharchenko has worked in the “T” department since 2014, moving there after the arrest of several dozen department employees headed by the former head of the main department, Denis Sugrobov. As of September 2016, Zakharchenko held the position of acting head of the “T” department of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

Today, the ex-deputy head of the department “T” of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Dmitry Zakharchenko, is accused under Articles 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Taking a bribe”, 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Abuse of official powers” and 294 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Obstruction of preliminary proceedings”. In addition to the bribe of 7 million rubles from the former head and co-owner of the Rusengineering company Anatoly Pshegornitsky, for which the anti-corruption official was caught, we are talking about a bribe of 800 thousand dollars from the restaurateur Medi Duss and from him - 3.5 million rubles in the form of a restaurant discount card “La Mare”, as well as about 800 thousand rubles in the form of holiday services from businessman Avsholum Yunaev. In addition, the colonel is charged with abuse of power and obstruction of justice - according to investigators, he warned the sister of Nota Bank's financial director Galina Marchukova, Larisa Marchukova, about the upcoming searches.

Billions found in the apartments of police relatives

The investigation has not yet been able to establish the true owner of the billions found in the apartments of Zakharchenko’s sister and mother. But it is possible that most of the seized money may belong to Nota Bank. Some of the bills were packaged by at least three banks, one of them was PJSC Nota Bank, whose license was revoked in November 2015. According to one assumption, the money is part of a sum of 26 billion rubles fraudulently withdrawn from the assets of a bankrupt bank. In addition to being involved in the conclusion assets of Nota Bank, law enforcement agencies they believe that the colonel contributed to the escape from investigation of the former head of VimpelCom Mikhail Slobodin, accused in the case of a bribe in the amount of 800 million rubles to officials of the Komi Republic. Zakharchenko spoke about what had been started against Slobodin, after which he managed to leave the territory of Russia. Another version of the origin of billions - kickbacks on contracts largest oil and gas companies. According to this version, Zakharchenko allegedly tracked the movement of money that top managers of companies received until the moment when the funds arrived at the banks. Then the colonel’s people appeared there, demonstrated the entire chain and offered the bankers an unambiguous choice - to get a deadline or part with the entire amount of the kickback. According to a number of other experts, Dmitry Zakharchenko could be “watching” the police “common fund”, that is, the money of a criminal group in which high-ranking representatives of law enforcement agencies play a leading role.

These are the official and alleged versions of the origin of Zakharchenko’s wealth. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, in total, with dubious income, the fighter purchased 27 apartments and parking spaces in elite areas of Moscow (most of the real estate is registered in the name of relatives of the ex-policeman), as well as four cars (two Mercedes-Benz and two Porche Cayenne), a gold bar weighing 500 g, Rolex watches and jewelry. In apartments registered to members of the Zakharchenko family, they found 140 million dollars, 2.2 million euros and more than 374 million rubles. In this case, from the very beginning, the main question is one: where does the money come from? Dmitry Zakharchenko himself keeps the intrigue. If at first he said that 9 billion from his sister’s apartment he accumulated from his salary for his years of service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then after the publication of data on his real official income (from the beginning of his work in the authorities in 2001 to 2016, the colonel earned a total of about 12 million rubles), he changed tactics. And now he simply claims that he does not know where the fabulous sums came from in the apartments and accounts of his numerous relatives and women and with what funds his relatives purchased luxury housing and expensive foreign cars. Although the investigation suggests that accounts and apartments in other people’s names are a tactic, a way to hide illegal income. The colonel’s relatives, in the hope of saving themselves, their property and millions from confiscation in the process initiated by the Prosecutor General’s Office, from turning the money and property seized from the colonel into state income, made a lot of effort to prove that their welfare has nothing to do with the disgraced policeman. As a result, with their versions they turned the court hearings into a theater of the absurd.

Version by Viktor Zakharchenko Viktor Zakharchenko, the father of the underground billionaire, is now himself under investigation. He accused The Investigative Committee of Russia in complicity in the embezzlement of 4 million rubles from clients of the Moscow Mortgage Agency bank. According to investigators, Zakharchenko Sr. was employed by the bank as a top manager and received a salary, but did not actually work there. In his son's case, the father takes all the blame on himself. More precisely, not guilt. He claims that the property belongs to him. With a confirmed income in 2002–2015 of just over 9 million rubles, Viktor Zakharchenko’s land plots and apartments totaling 206 million were seized. These include three apartments - on Prechistenskaya Embankment, Yakimanka and Leninsky Prospekt. Zakharchenko Sr. assures that he started making money back in the 1980s, reselling three cars. Then the onset of privatization helped him develop his entrepreneurial spirit - “for a bottle of vodka” he bought vouchers from the population and exchanged them for Gazprom shares. This is how I collected the initial family capital. He even compared himself to Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich, who took approximately the same first steps in business. True, Viktor Zakharchenko refused to tell the details and directions of his business career from the time when they stopped selling privatization checks until the present day.

Although relatives say, he accumulated wealth by being engaged in construction, real estate and gardening all these years. Sources in banking circles claim that the colonel’s father, Viktor Zakharchenko, is known among bankers as the author of financial schemes for owners and top managers of problem organizations. According to this version, Zakharchenko Sr., together with his son, helped bankers minimize losses after the Central Bank revoked their licenses, facilitating the cashing out of funds or their withdrawal abroad. By the way, in September 2016, information appeared that it had discovered several offshore companies registered under Viktor Zakharchenko, which had six accounts opened in Swiss banks. The total amount in these accounts was 300 million euros. Version by Irina Razgonova The apartment on Lomonosovsky Prospekt, where the first batch of billions was seized, belongs to Zakharchenko’s half-sister Irina Razgonova. A video recorder on the street recorded how she and her father carried bulky trunks into this apartment the day before. The bag, clearly visible on the video footage and later found inside the residence, contained more than $202,000. Irina Razgonova herself immediately after her brother’s arrest portrayed a complete lack of understanding of the situation. According to her, she did not maintain a relationship with Dmitry, and the currency and half-kilogram gold bar could have been planted by persons unknown to her. She did not live in the apartment itself and when she visited for the last time (two weeks before the search), she did not observe any wealth there. However, then she began to claim that, it turns out, the elite had a secret room behind an armored door, the key to which she never had. This topic was subsequently developed by Razgonova’s lawyer Alexander Gorbatenko, saying that since no one lived in the apartment or brought money there, and there is no owner of the billions, it means it is a treasure. And according to the Russian Civil Code, the owner of the treasure (in this case, the owner of the apartment) is entitled to half the amount (50 percent), minus 13% income tax. Having found no support in court in favor of the “treasure” version, the enterprising defender put forward a new one - the source of the money that the investigation is discussing could be mining. “Cryptocurrency is fashionable now. Someone recently became a billionaire, made money on bitcoins, was engaged in mining - this is also completely legal. There are ways in which people make money and it is not their responsibility to disclose them. In Russia it’s hard to earn just the first million. Then it’s much easier,” said Zakharchenko Sr. Now Razgonova and Zakharchenko’s mother are outside Russia. Razgonova’s husband, Vladimir, tried to bring “clarity” to the situation with the origin of the money, which further confused everything and reduced everything that was happening to the level of an anecdote, at one of the court hearings on the claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office for the conversion of money and property seized from the colonel into state income. The relative admitted that the 9 billion rubles found in the apartment on Lomonosovsky Prospekt most likely belonged to him, because he is a successful businessman - back in the 1980s he earned millions of dollars in Ukraine, where he had a chain of cinemas. He considers himself a successful entrepreneur even now, since he can, if the tax authorities do not bother him, earn one and a half million dollars in 4 months. According to his revelations, after his wedding with Irina, he gave all the money, without counting, to his wife for years, like an exemplary husband. He does not suggest how much has accumulated in total, citing ignorance of mathematics. Therefore, it does not exclude that the entire amount seized from his wife’s apartment belongs to him. But just in case, I make a reservation - you need to ask your wife. It is worth considering that the colonel’s sister and her husband are officially listed as unemployed and sometimes earn odd jobs renovating apartments. Valentina Zakharchenko's version The lawyer of Colonel Valentina Zakharchenko’s mother, who is now abroad, tried to prove that the mother of the family’s wealth was based on a million-dollar inheritance received in the 1990s. In her apartment on Michurinsky Prospekt, operatives discovered the corrupt colonel’s second cash cache - 19.5 million rubles, 600 thousand euros and 20 thousand dollars, as well as a Rolex watch. And the colonel, just as in the first case, denied that the savings were his, and Zakharchenko’s mother assured that the funds “were accumulated and received from the sale of real estate.” Moreover, she made these transactions even before the advent of the anti-corruption law, so she was not obliged to report to anyone where the money came from. According to this logic, once a simple Rostov mathematics teacher, having received a large sum as an inheritance from an unknown person (it was not possible to establish the details of this person, the party could not provide documents about the inheritance), turned it over profitably. Including engaging in usury - according to the testimony of witnesses invited to court by relatives, they often borrowed 150-200 thousand dollars from Valentina Zakharchenko, and returned sums 3-4 times larger solely out of gratitude. At the same time, they always acted only on the basis of an oral agreement, without drawing up even basic receipts.

In general, according to the lawyer, in the period from 1987 to 2004, teacher Zakharchenko earned 33 million rubles (taking into account denomination, translated into modern money, 4 million). The woman also worked on her plot, selling the fruits of her labor on the market, and this brought her income. As for the four Moscow apartments owned by the mother of the accused, the defense claims that the source of money for their purchase is the same notorious inheritance and the same commercial vein of the former teacher. Thus, the officer’s mother purchased the apartment on Michurinsky Avenue, where the “black cash register” was kept, “at the excavation stage” in 2004, using savings and proceeds from the purchase and sale of real estate in the Rostov region. The lawyer for Colonel Zakharchenko’s mother, Valentina, also said that the money found in this very apartment has nothing to do with the ex-employee of the GUEBiPK - the colonel’s mother allegedly received part of the amount under a preliminary agreement on the sale of real estate.

The same notebook

But Valentina Zakharchenko herself adheres to her daughter, Irina Razgonova, in the version of the origin of millions - the money was planted. And there is an explanation for this - everything leads to the fact that she will have to reveal the source of the “bank at home” in court, when the trial in the Zakharchenko case begins. The fact is that during the searches, investigators found themselves in the hands of a simple student’s notebook with complicated notes written in Valentina’s hand. It turned out that the mother of the colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs kept records of large sums that were subsequently found in his family’s apartments. “Naturally, her mathematical abilities were very useful in counting property. All calculations given in this notebook are done in a column. The amount is such and such plus the amount is such and such. We subsequently compared these amounts with the seized money. You know, the amounts are beating,” says prosecutor Bochkarev. Version by Irina Petrushina Lawyer Maximilian Burov, representing the interests of Irina Petrushina, the common-law wife of the former deputy head of the anti-corruption department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Dmitry Zakharchenko, Irina Petrushina, fainted at the end of the 9-hour court hearing. This added additional spice to the process, which was increasingly reminiscent of the theater of the absurd. However, compared to other women, Zakharchenko Petrushina did not put forward ridiculous versions of acquiring wealth.

Zakharchenko moved with his common-law wife Irina Petrushina from Rostov to Moscow in 2005. The lovers were going to get married, but in 2007 the woman left the colonel because of his infidelities (he began a relationship with Marina Semykina). As compensation, Zakharchenko left Petrushina a Mercedes ML car, an apartment and a parking space in the Dominion residential complex on Lomonosovsky Prospekt in Moscow worth about 50 million rubles. Zakharchenko’s former first common-law wife did not use this apartment, permanently residing in Rostov-on-Don. It is interesting that this apartment is located in the same building as the apartment of Zakharchenko’s sister - the same one where 9 billion were discovered during the search. And in addition to this - sales documents confirming the purchase of luxury furniture for both apartments. Marina Semynina's version Marina Semynina is the former common-law wife and mother of Dmitry Zakharchenko’s daughter. At the moment, she is the only one of the many women in the colonel’s entourage who carries parcels to him in prison. She claims that she has nothing in common with the arrested billionaire from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, calling herself “just an acquaintance” and “a fighting friend.” Recently, 585 million rubles in dollar equivalent disappeared from the accounts of a fighting friend. The woman stated that these were her personal savings, which were credited to her account by her rich and influential fans. She refused to give the names of her fans, just as she refused to clarify the fate of the missing half a billion. She only said that she was free to do whatever she wanted with her money, so she could drown the entire amount in the Moscow River. To prevent the woman from leaving Russia following the example of Zakharchenko’s mother and sister, the Investigative Committee confiscated her international passport.

In the story with Marina Zakharchenko believes herself as a victim, since law enforcement officers took away property from her that allegedly had nothing to do with the arrested colonel. She assures that she acquired a significant part of the property with her own funds, since she had her own business related to Internet services. Therefore, the fact that, according to investigators, she lived on Zakharchenko’s money is a complete slander (we are talking about two apartments in Moscow - with an area of 70 sq. m. near the Akademicheskaya metro station, which is registered to Semynina herself, and with an area of 170 sq. m. . near the Oktyabrskaya metro station, which is registered to their common daughter with Zakharchenko, as well as two Porsche and Mercedes cars). According to Marina, she was able to prove the origin of almost the entire amount for which she bought housing on Akademicheskaya in 2007 - allegedly this gift was given to her by her parents, and the apartment was given to her daughter by her own grandfather, Viktor Zakharchenko. According to the common-law wife of a billionaire colonel, the seizure of property looks all the more strange from the outside because the tax authorities have last years there were no complaints against her. “I had three searches, during which they raked out all the money and things that were in the apartment. During the first search, they described all my jewelry, and during the second - a year later - they took all of them. During the third search, they found the only watch that had not been found before and took it from me. At the same time, legally I am not his (Zakharchenko’s) wife; Dmitry and I do not have a common household,” says Semynina. It is worth adding that shortly before Zakharchenko’s arrest, the common-law spouses began living together again, but without a stamp in their passport.

A three-room apartment is not the only gift to his daughter Ulyana that Dmitry Zakharchenko is accused of. A girl who is fond of horse riding has a thoroughbred horse named “Oligarch”. It is also assumed that in the name of the minor Ulyana Zakharchenko bought a castle in London- operatives were looking for documents for foreign real estate during searches in Semynina’s apartment. And in October 2017, the Basmanny Court of Moscow arrested another account for 58 million rubles of a certain Tuchkova. This is a friend of Marina Semynina, to whom, according to investigators, Zakharchenko’s mistress gave the money for safekeeping. Even before the colonel’s arrest, Semynina deposited more than three million dollars and 9.5 million euros into her accounts. After Zakharchenko’s arrest, she withdrew $12 million from her VTB Bank account, and soon her acquaintance deposited about a million dollars into his account. After which the money was withdrawn, and Tuchkova opened a ruble account in the same bank, where she deposited 58 million rubles. Investigators are convinced that this money belongs to Zakharchenko, who “obtained it through criminal means.”

Version by Yana Saratovtseva Yana Saratovtseva will most likely present her theory of the origin of money to a very limited circle of people. So far she has not shown herself openly in this story, trying to live as she is used to - expensively and richly. The participant in the show “The Bachelor” became the legal wife of the generous colonel in 2013. She became famous among Zakharchenko’s women for the fact that she loved and knew how to live “in grand style.” For her, the official wife of a police officer, it was quite normal to spend up to half a million rubles on one trip to boutiques. As a wedding gift, the bride received a Porsche Cayenne worth 6 million, as well as jewelry worth a total of 350 thousand US dollars. Saratovtseva’s collection includes luxurious jewelry from Jacob&Co, David Morris, de Grisgono, some pieces contain 20 carats of diamonds. The cost of one such item can exceed 300 thousand US dollars. Immediately after the wedding, the couple began to live in an apartment of 250 square meters on Prechistenskaya Embankment overlooking the Moscow River, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Kremlin. The investigation found that in 2014, on the eve of the divorce, Yana began to blackmail her husband by saying that she would go to the Internal Security Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and tell everything about his “business.” To reassure his wife, the colonel gave her an apartment with an area of over 100 square meters in the capital's Khamovniki district - not far from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, in 1st Zachatievsky Lane. The cost of the apartment is approximately 85 million rubles. Already in May 2017, the divorced model threw a party for three million rubles at the La Marée restaurant. Interestingly, this very establishment appears in the Zakharchenko case. The colonel is charged with receiving as a bribe a discount of 3.5 million rubles from the president of the La Marée restaurant chain, Medi Duss.

By the way, it is from Yana Saratovtseva that the investigators want to find out the details of the life of her ex-husband, who “rose globally” during their marriage, and find out what the girl blackmailed him with, threatening to report to the Internal Security Service, and why he chose to pay off. According to operational data, most of the personal wealth of Zakharchenko and his relatives appeared in the period 2012–2013, when he worked in the “M” Directorate of the anti-corruption headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Although, most likely, offended by the fact that, according to the court decision, apartments and jewelry donated ex-husband, confiscated, she ran to testify. At least there is information that she is being used as a witness in a criminal case. Version by Anastasia Pestrikova“I’ll tell you, as a gas-electric welder, that it’s better to keep money in dollars” - a phrase from the father of one of Zakharchenko’s next mistresses, Vladimir Pestrikov, has every chance of taking its rightful place in the annals of history. We are talking about $16 million, which, according to investigators, was given to Anastasia Pestrikova by Zakharchenko and which she hid in her friend’s accounts. According to her selfless version, this is the money of her family, or rather her father Vladimir Pestrikov. At some point they were transferred to the family of Zakharchenko, the father of her child, for safekeeping.

The roots of the story of Anastasia receiving money go back to 2015. Allegedly, then at a pregnancy clinic she met a certain girl named Maria. The expectant mothers became so friendly that when Maria said that she was planning to buy real estate in Cyprus, Pestrikova recommended her father to her as a great specialist in building houses. On July 14, 2016, an agency agreement was concluded between Maria and gas-electric welder Pestrikov, according to which he must find suitable real estate for the client and receive a remuneration of half a million euros for the services. On the same day, Maria gave Anastasia 14.7 million euros in cash, which she credited to her account at VTB-24 bank. And three months later, having learned that the father of her child had been arrested, she immediately felt that the money could be taken away by linking it with Zakharchenko. How such an idea could have occurred to a woman who assured everyone that her affair with a policeman was limited to only one night, and all the help Zakharchenko gave to her own son amounted to the purchase of a stroller is difficult to understand. Unless you assume that the girl is lying. Be that as it may, Pestrikova asked her friend Liliya Gorshkova to open two foreign currency accounts in her name in the same bank and deposit money into them, but in dollars. The premonition, Pestrikova is sure, did not deceive her - almost immediately after this operation, Gorshkova’s accounts were seized. With all this, Pestrikova missed one detail, thanks to which the investigation considered that the currency did not belong to either the girl herself, nor her father, nor the mythical Maria , but was directly related to Dmitry Zakharchenko. Before the money ended up in the bank account, it was kept in a safe in the apartment on Michurinsky Prospekt where Anastasia lived. And the apartment is the property of Zakharchenko’s mother. In contrast to the complex scheme reproduced by his daughter, her father simplified as much as possible the history of the family’s receipt of currency. He said that he once met a friend of his daughter at the Leningradsky station, who gave him 14 million euros and asked the gas-electric welder to buy her a villa in Cyprus with this money. Pestrikov did not have time to buy the villa, but he transferred the money into dollars. The point of changing the currency from euros to dollars, provided that the euro is in use in Cyprus, he explained in one word - "Brexit", delighting everyone in the courtroom with his keen understanding of the international situation and his skills as a financial expert.

By the way, exactly a month before the arrest of the deputy head of the “T” department, he bought Anastasia and her son an apartment of 170 square meters on Efremov Street worth 150 million rubles. True, here too the girl claimed that her own father helped her with the apartment. According to Life, Pestrikova gave birth to the colonel’s second child in 2017. Now she lives with her parents in Khimki.

Subtotals

December 1, 2017 Nikulinsky Court of Moscow in full satisfied claim of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation on the conversion into state revenue of property seized during a criminal case and Money, received by former employee of the GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Dmitry Zakharchenko for a total amount of almost 9 billion rubles. However, the answer to the question about the sources of origin of all this was never received. In January 2018, the billionaire colonel will be finally charged, and the criminal case will go to court. And perhaps then the intrigue that arose almost a year and a half ago will be revealed.

As Kommersant learned, in the coming days the investigation into the criminal case of a colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dmitry Zakharchenko will establish the origin of the currency seized from his sister’s apartment with the help of the US Federal Reserve System, to which a corresponding request has already been sent. Having found out which of the Russian banks ordered cash dollars, the investigation will also understand the financial fraud of their custodian. It is currently assumed that the policeman, who was on duty monitoring the movement of funds in the oil and gas sector, could appropriate kickbacks intended for the top management of corporations.

According to a Kommersant source close to the investigation, the most experienced specialist in solving crimes in the financial sector, Zakharchenko, made a mistake by taking for storage the so-called bricks - cellophane packages with dollars issued by banks of the US Federal Reserve System. These packages, with a face value of $200 thousand each, as it was established by the investigation, had not been unpacked since they were brought on flights from overseas, therefore, on the inside of the paper ribbons holding the bills, the seals of some of the twelve regional banks that are members of the Federal Reserve were preserved. For example, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

As a Kommersant source explained, the very next day after Mr. Zakharchenko’s arrest, participants in the investigation, through the Central Bank and Rosfinmonitoring, sent a request to the US Federal Reserve, in which they asked to indicate which of the Russian banks ordered the suspicious currency. The recipient, according to operatives, could only be a large credit organization capable of transferring a large amount of dollars to its correspondent account in the United States by bank transfer and requesting cash from there. According to Kommersant, so that foreign partners would have no doubts about the advisability of cooperating with the Russian investigation, the request indicated that the criminal case may lead law enforcement officers to the trail of a large organized crime group involved in laundering and transferring funds abroad in especially large sizes. This argument, according to Kommersant's interlocutor, will be decisive for those officials in the United States on whom the decision will depend.

The next stage of the investigation, obviously, will be the seizure of documents from the bank that ordered the currency and the identification of clients who bought from him for cash rubles the same $120 million that was then found in the apartment of policeman Zakharchenko’s sister.

So far, participants in the investigation believe that the dollars seized in the case were purchased from a Russian bank for cash rubles, which were nothing more than kickbacks intended for top managers of the largest Russian oil and gas companies, the spending of funds in which was monitored by the acting chief on duty Department "T" GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs Zakharchenko. As another source explained to Kommersant, operatives of the T department were traditionally interested primarily in contracts for the installation of oil and gas pipelines, replacement and repair of pumping equipment, construction of villages and roads, which companies entered into with contractors. Since such expenses for any large company calculated in billions or tens of billions of rubles, there has always been an abundance of people wishing to gain access to the development of this money. “Accordingly, participation in tenders turned into a fierce struggle with competitors, in which the winners were not always the best - often they were won by applicants who were ready to give about 30% of the order cost in cash to top managers of corporations who recommended them,” explained Kommersant’s interlocutor. According to him, this was the so-called tower tax - the central office of the customer company. To obtain the “tax” cash, the contractor, as investigators believe, was forced to take out a fictitious subcontract from a shell company affiliated with him. At the same time, the builders performed all the work themselves, and according to the contract, the “garbage dump” was transferred the amount necessary to pay the kickback. Then the one-day operation cashed out this money, again through a bank affiliated with the participants in the scheme and self-liquidated.

These schemes were monitored by Colonel Zakharchenko and his subordinates. At the same time, of all the structures involved in financial fraud, the policeman, as participants in the investigation believe, was only interested in the last link - the banks. Having checked the financial documentation of this or that corporation as part of his duty and identified suspicious contracts, the head of the “T” department, Zakharchenko, studied the entire scheme in detail, involving other departments of the GUEBiPK in the work. He had such an opportunity.

The colonel himself, according to operational data, limited himself to collecting information from his subordinates, and intervened in the scheme already at the final stage, when the kickback was generated, cashed and ready for transfer. The intermediary from Dmitry Zakharchenko simply contacted the management of the credit institution and argued with detailed description the entire scheme of the perfect financial fraud - explained to the banker which articles of the Criminal Code he had violated and what sentence he would face for it. For failure to use the collected incriminating evidence, according to a Kommersant source, the policeman and his people did not offer the banker to pay a certain percentage of the kickback amount, but took it in its entirety. Hence the amazing amount of money seized in the case of Colonel Zakharchenko.

["Novaya Gazeta", 09/16/2016, "This is not the fight against corruption, but its complete failure": Where did a not-so-high-ranking police officer get such money and what does this unprecedented case mean for the Russian special services? Novaya Gazeta discussed these issues with Alexander Sharkevich, a former classified employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who worked undercover for many years to expose corruption in the highest authorities. […]
- By the way, what will happen to this money?
- This is an interesting question. Possession of any amount of money in itself is not a crime or offense. The maximum is a violation of the code of ethics and official conduct of an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. If the criminal origin of these funds is not proven, the money, oddly enough, will have to be returned. Therefore, in my opinion, Zakharchenko will now be put under pressure in the pre-trial detention center, agents will be planted in the cell, they will carry out ICR (in-cell development), select neighbors, some of whom will scare him, and others who will supposedly be friends, finding out the information necessary for the investigation. It is very likely that in the near future Zakharchenko’s relatives will be subjected to pressure or even persecution. The main goal of all this is to force Zakharchenko to make a deal with the investigation. Otherwise, the investigation will have to return the confiscated property and receive reprimands from the authorities. Now it is necessary to “make” not only Zakharchenko, but also members of his family performers or accomplices in the theft of these funds. - Insert K.ru]

According to Kommersant, the investigation is now studying all the checks and operational developments carried out by the T department under the leadership of Colonel Zakharchenko. Those involved in these events, including bankers and heads of large construction companies, are already being interrogated. All of them can become either accomplices in the alleged thefts or victims in the case - the status of these people will largely depend on the testimony they give.

["Kommersant", 09.15.2016, "Bank on a family contract": We note that during searches in apartments belonging to members of officer Zakharchenko’s family, in addition to money and valuables, financial documents about transfer to various accounts in Swiss banks about €300 million. The accused, however, found an explanation for this too, recommending that the investigation contact his father, Viktor Zakharchenko, whom he called a major financier.
According to Kommersant's sources in banking circles, Zakharchenko Sr. is known in them as the author of various financial schemes used by the owners and top managers of problem banks. According to this version, which is now being verified by the investigation, he and his son helped minimize losses for bankers before the Central Bank revoked their license. Messrs. Zakharchenko’s clients included: owners of Nota Bank. Allegedly, at the request of the bankers, the family helped them withdraw part of the funds abroad and cash out the rest. However, after the arrests of the bankers, this money remained unclaimed and was found by FSB officers.
However, there is another version of the origin of billions. It talks about a group involved in illegal cashing and withdrawal of funds abroad, allegedly under the control of Colonel Zakharchenko and his colleagues. According to this assumption, the officer’s sister’s apartment was again used as a bank vault, but not a family vault, but a corporate one. - Insert K.ru]

The FSB found the sources of the 123 million cache.

As it became known, as one of the versions of the origin of millions of dollars and euros discovered during the investigation of the high-profile criminal case of the deputy head of the “T” department of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Dmitry Zakharchenko, the investigation is considering the colonel’s family business. According to this assumption, the officer and his father acted as consultants to troubled banks, helping them cash out or move funds abroad. It is assumed that a dozen financial structures could have been in the family's service, including Nota Bank, whose leadership was imprisoned.

Dmitry Zakharchenko is accused by the main investigative department of the Investigative Committee for Moscow of committing crimes under Part 1 of Art. 285 (abuse of official powers), part 3 of Art. 294 (obstruction of the preliminary investigation) and Part 6 of Art. 290 (bribe on an especially large scale of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Moreover, the episode with the bribe was the first in his case.

At 9:40 on the morning of September 9, the investigator of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, having examined the inspection materials received by him about the commission of a corruption crime by Colonel Zakharchenko, within 20 minutes opened a criminal case under the relevant article. From the plot of the accusation then brought against the officer, it followed that on December 25, 2015, he received a bribe from an “unidentified person” in the amount of 7 million rubles. on Malaya Bronnaya Street “for general patronage and connivance in the service” as an official.

As part of the investigation into this episode, the investigation ordered a phonographic examination, however, as the officer’s lawyer Yuri Novikov is sure, it is unlikely to help prove his client’s guilt.

According to Mr. Novikov, the “unidentified person” has long been identified. “I asked my client this question, and he immediately remembered a meeting with his acquaintance at the Village Kitchen restaurant on Malaya Bronnaya,” the defense lawyer explained. According to him, Dmitry Zakharchenko chatted with his acquaintance, who is now abroad, about all sorts of things, including laughing about the possible wiretapping of their negotiations, which, as it later turned out, was actually underway at that moment. Mr. Zakharchenko claims that there was no talk of any millions at that time. “The examination is unlikely to be able to prove anything here,” Mr. Novikov emphasized, refusing, however, to name his client’s interlocutor.

According to the information, this person is not associated with Nota Bank, around which two other charges against Colonel Zakharchenko are based. According to the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, shortly before the collapse of Nota Bank, in September last year, an officer, through the financial director of this structure, Galina Marchukova and her sister Larisa, warned the bank’s minority shareholders Dmitry and Vadim Erokhin about operational investigative measures being prepared against them as part of the investigation criminal case of theft. As a result, according to the State Investigative Directorate, the bank’s top managers, who were subsequently arrested, managed to hide from the investigation the financial documents it needed to prove the thefts.

Thus, according to investigators, the officer abused his official powers and also tried to obstruct the preliminary investigation.

However, as lawyer Novikov said, his client, although he was closely acquainted with the sisters, did not convey any warning information to them, and the investigation, even in a confrontation, if there is one, is unlikely to be able to prove this. “Moreover, the operational support of the investigation of the criminal case of Nota Bank was carried out by employees of another department of the GUEBiPK,” the lawyer emphasized, adding that the accused Marchukov sisters also deny receiving official information from Mr. Zakharchenko.

The colonel, according to the defense lawyer, has nothing to do with the money found during the searches conducted on September 9. Then, 15 million rubles were seized from the Honda Acura car the officer was using, and rubles and currency totaling 8.5 billion rubles were seized from the apartment. Lawyer Novikov explained that the car and the money belong to the head of one of the construction companies, who is ready to provide the investigation with detailed testimony and documents confirming the legal origin of the funds. As for the apartment, which was actually turned into a bank vault, then, according to the officer, this is the apartment of his half-sister, which he has not been to.

It should be noted that during searches in apartments belonging to members of the officer Zakharchenko’s family, in addition to money and valuables, financial documents were discovered about the transfer of about €300 million to various accounts in Swiss banks. The accused, however, found an explanation for this, recommending that the investigation turn to him father Viktor Zakharchenko, whom he called a major financier.

According to sources in banking circles, Zakharchenko Sr. is known among them as the author of various financial schemes used by the owners and top managers of problem banks. According to this version, which is now being verified by the investigation, he and his son helped minimize losses for bankers before the Central Bank revoked their license. The owners of Nota Bank were also among the clients of Messrs. Zakharchenko. Allegedly, at the request of the bankers, the family helped them withdraw part of the funds abroad and cash out the rest. However, after the arrests of the bankers, this money remained unclaimed and was found by FSB officers.

However, there is another version of the origin of billions. It talks about a group involved in illegal cashing and withdrawal of funds abroad, allegedly under the control of Colonel Zakharchenko and his colleagues. According to this assumption, the officer’s sister’s apartment was again used as a bank vault, but not a family vault, but a corporate one.

After the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, ordered an internal audit at the GUEBiPK, the head of the main department, Andrei Kurnosenko, submitted his resignation, which has not yet been satisfied. Perhaps the hitch is due to the fact that Mr. Zakharchenko was appointed to his last position in the Ministry of Internal Affairs on September 9, 2015, not by General Kurnosenko, but by his predecessor.

Yuri Senatorov

Nikolay Sergeev

Sergey Mashkin

Cash from Nota Bank

One of Nota Bank's top managers testified against the deputy head of the "T" department of the Main Directorate of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption (GUEBiPK) of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Dmitry Zakharchenko. This was reported by a source familiar with the situation.

“Zakharchenko’s criminal activities, including his receipt of a bribe, are proven, among other things, by the testimony of witnesses - one of the bank’s former top managers,” the source said. He did not specify whether this witness was a bribe-payer.

Zakharchenko’s involvement in the theft of 26 billion rubles from Nota Bank became known on September 10 during a meeting in the Presnensky Court of Moscow, where the issue of arresting the defendant was decided. In this criminal case, in the summer of 2016, employees of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and the FSB of Russia also detained two bank managers - the Erokhin brothers, and a little later - financial director Galina Marchukova.

In turn, lawyer Yuri Novikov said that “a certain person pointed to Zakharchenko as the person who committed the crime,” which served as one of the grounds for the arrest of his client.

Zakharchenko is accused under three articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - “Abuse of official powers” (Article 285), “Obstruction of justice and preliminary investigation” (Article 294) and “Taking a bribe” (Article 290). The case is being investigated by the Main Investigation Department of the RF Investigative Committee for Moscow.

Source: TASS, September 15, 2016

The US Federal Reserve was involved in the case of Colonel Zakharchenko

In the coming days, the investigation into the criminal case of Interior Ministry Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko will establish the origin of the currency seized in his sister’s apartment with the help of the US Federal Reserve System, to which a corresponding request has already been sent. Having found out which of the Russian banks ordered cash dollars, the investigation will also understand the financial fraud of their custodian. It is currently assumed that the policeman, who was on duty monitoring the movement of funds in the oil and gas sector, could appropriate kickbacks intended for the top management of corporations.

According to a source close to the investigation, Zakharchenko, an experienced specialist in solving crimes in the financial sector, made a mistake by taking for storage the so-called bricks - cellophane packages with dollars issued by banks of the US Federal Reserve System. These packages, with a face value of $200 thousand each, as it was established by the investigation, had not been unpacked since they were brought on flights from overseas, therefore, on the inside of the paper ribbons holding the bills, the seals of some of the twelve regional banks that are members of the Federal Reserve were preserved. For example, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

The very next day after Mr. Zakharchenko’s arrest, participants in the investigation, through the Central Bank and Rosfinmonitoring, sent a request to the US Federal Reserve, asking to indicate which Russian bank ordered the suspicious currency. The recipient, according to operatives, could only be a large credit organization capable of transferring a large amount of dollars to its correspondent account in the United States by bank transfer and requesting cash from there. To ensure that foreign partners have no doubts about the advisability of cooperating with the Russian investigation, the request indicated that the criminal case initiated may lead law enforcement officers to the trail of a large organized crime group involved in laundering and transferring funds abroad on a particularly large scale. This argument, according to the interlocutor, will be decisive for those officials in the United States on whom the decision will depend.

So far, participants in the investigation believe that the dollars seized in the case were purchased from a Russian bank for cash rubles, which were nothing more than kickbacks intended for top managers of the largest Russian oil and gas companies, the spending of funds in which was monitored by the acting chief on duty Department "T" GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs Zakharchenko. As another source explained to Kommersant, operatives of the T department were traditionally interested primarily in contracts for the installation of oil and gas pipelines, replacement and repair of pumping equipment, construction of villages and roads, which companies entered into with contractors. Since such expenses for any large company are calculated in billions or tens of billions of rubles, there has always been an abundance of people wishing to gain access to the development of this money. “Accordingly, participation in tenders turned into a fierce struggle with competitors, in which the winners were not always the best—they were often won by applicants who were ready to give about 30% of the order cost in cash to the top managers of corporations who recommended them,” the interlocutor explained. According to him, this was the so-called tax on the tower - the central office of the customer company. To obtain the “tax” cash, the contractor, as investigators believe, was forced to take out a fictitious subcontract from a shell company affiliated with him. At the same time, the builders carried out all the work themselves, and according to the contract, the “garbage dump” was transferred the amount necessary to pay the kickback. Then the one-day operation cashed out this money, again through a bank affiliated with the participants in the scheme and self-liquidated.

The colonel himself, according to operational data, limited himself to collecting information from his subordinates, and intervened in the scheme already at the final stage, when the kickback was generated, cashed and ready for transfer. The intermediary from Dmitry Zakharchenko simply contacted the management of the credit institution and argued, with a detailed description of the entire scheme of the financial fraud, explained to the banker what articles of the Criminal Code he had violated and what sentence he would face for it. For failure to use the collected incriminating evidence, according to a Kommersant source, the policeman and his people did not offer the banker to pay a certain percentage of the kickback amount, but took it in its entirety. Hence the amazing amount of money seized in the case of Colonel Zakharchenko.

[Novaya Gazeta, 09/16/2016, “This is not the fight against corruption, but its complete failure”: Where did a not-so-high-ranking police officer get such money and what does this unprecedented case mean for the Russian special services? Novaya Gazeta discussed these issues with Alexander Sharkevich, a former classified employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who worked undercover for many years to expose corruption in the highest authorities. [...]

— By the way, what will happen to this money?

- This is an interesting question. Possession of any amount of money in itself is not a crime or offense. The maximum is a violation of the code of ethics and official conduct of an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. If the criminal origin of these funds is not proven, the money, oddly enough, will have to be returned. Therefore, in my opinion, Zakharchenko will now be put under pressure in the pre-trial detention center, agents will be planted in the cell, they will carry out ICR (in-cell development), and select neighbors, some of whom will scare him, and others who will supposedly be friends, finding out the information necessary for the investigation. It is very likely that in the near future Zakharchenko’s relatives will be subjected to pressure or even persecution. The main goal of all this is to force Zakharchenko to make a deal with the investigation. Otherwise, the investigation will have to return the confiscated property and receive reprimands from the authorities. Now it is necessary to “make” not only Zakharchenko, but also members of his family performers or accomplices in the theft of these funds - K.ru box]

From a technical school student to the head of the "DPR" he was very funny

On August 31, at about 18:00, an explosion occurred in the Separ cafe in Donetsk, as a result of which the leader of the “DPR” Alexander Zakharchenko was killed. Journalists collected Interesting Facts about the leader of militants and separatists.

Alexander Zakharchenko was born in Donetsk, where he graduated from the Industrial Automation College. He worked at a mine as a miner and as an electrician, then entered the Donetsk Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Allegedly expelled for alcoholism.

According to investigative journalists "Insider", Zakharchenko long time collaborated with the Party of Regions. In 2006, he held the position of director of LLC Trading House Continent. He was a co-founder of Donetsk LLC "Delta-Fort" (the company was engaged in a wide range of activities - from book publishing to wholesale trade products).

In 2013, Alexander Zakharchenko joined the Kharkov pro-Russian organization Oplot and led the Donetsk branch.

On April 16, 2014, he led a group of militants to seize the Donetsk city administration. A month later, Zakharchenko was appointed military commandant of Donetsk captured by militants, and subsequently - “Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs” of the “DPR”.

In August 2014, he headed the “Council of Ministers” of the so-called “DPR”, replacing Alexander Borodai.

After the “elections” in the “DPR”, Zakharchenko was declared the winner and presented with “certificates of the head of the DPR” - 765,000 people (about 75% of voters) allegedly voted for him.

Alexander Zakharchenko is a defendant in criminal proceedings in Ukraine. Suspected of “creating a terrorist group or terrorist organization” and other particularly serious crimes. The main suspect in the case of the death of civilians near Volnovakha.

In May 2016, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said that the criminal case against Alexander Zakharchenko was not transferred to the Ukrainian court due to the fact that the Prosecutor General's Office was unable to collect evidence of his guilt.

Similar articles: