The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel and Rucriminal.info are starting (or rather, continuing) a series of publications about which of the security forces and Kremlin oligarchs were behind the WEX (BTC-E) exchange, received billions from it and became the richest people. This will not be cheap stuffing of one publication that the exchange was exclusively protected by the former head of the 3rd department of the 4th department (for combating crimes in the credit and financial sector committed using information technologies) of the “K” department of the Bureau of Special Technical Events, Georgy Satyukov. There will be all job names and amounts. You also know how, when and which court issued a warrant to search the Kremlin oligarch Konstantin Malofeev and how he “solved this problem,
Since 2016, the Directorate “K” of the BSTM of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia has taken measures aimed at identifying and bringing to justice persons who committed the theft of funds from correspondent accounts of Russian banks using malicious software.
During the operational-search activities, it was established that funds stolen as a result of criminal activity were legalized by transferring them into cryptocurrency through the BTC-E exchange operating at that time.
As a result of the work in 2018, one of the co-founders of the BTC-E exchange, which had already ceased to exist at that time, was identified, as well as the newly opened and legal successor of the latter - the WEX exchange. This person was Alexey Bilyuchenko (hereinafter Ivanov), living in Novosibirsk. At his place of residence, employees of the Directorate “K” of the BSTM and the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation conducted a search, Ivanov was interrogated on the circumstances of the transfers of stolen funds into cryptocurrency using the resources of the exchanges he managed. During the interrogation, Ivanov gave detailed testimony regarding the functioning of the BTC-E exchange, in relation to the WEX exchange newly created on its basis, and also voluntarily provided information about the movement of cryptocurrencies on the accounts of interest to the investigation.
During his testimony, Ivanov said that the WEX exchange ceased to exist due to the fact that oligarch Konstantin Malofeev and persons affiliated with him stole exchange assets worth the equivalent of 450 million US dollars, based on the cryptocurrency rate at the time of the theft. Ivanov confirmed this testimony with documents, providing material evidence of the involvement of the above persons in the commission of the crime, including working documentation, correspondence in instant messengers, audio recordings of conversations both directly with Malofeev and with his subordinates Anton Nemkin, Evgeny Zhulanov and Dmitry Sarychev.
The head of the Department “K” Georgy Satyukov immediately reported this information about the facts of Malofeev’s criminal activities to the head of the BSTM of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, General Litvinov and his first deputy, General Kozlov, who are seconded employees of the FSB of Russia. After reviewing the information received, the leadership of the BSTM of the Ministry of Internal Affairs gave instructions to develop Malofeev and those in his circle involved in the theft of funds from exchange users.
According to a source from the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, Satyukov was appointed direct executor and head of the task force. The persons under investigation were placed on operational records, and in relation to them, by court decision, a full range of operational search, special technical and search activities were organized. In parallel, Satyukov and the operational employees under his command found more than 30 criminal cases throughout Russia, initiated on the basis of statements from injured depositors of the WEX exchange, a search was carried out for new victims, and active work was carried out with an initiative group of depositors.
By the beginning of 2019, operational developments fully confirmed the involvement of Malofeev and his associates in the theft of assets of the WEX exchange. Additionally, during the course of carrying out special technical measures authorized by the court to listen to telephone conversations and monitor Malofeev’s Internet traffic, numerous other facts of criminal activity were revealed both by Malofeev himself and by persons in his circle. A wide circle of Malofeev’s corrupt connections, consisting of various high-ranking officials, was revealed, facts of patronage and even complicity in his criminal activities were documented. The incoming results of operational activities were under constant control of the leadership of the BSTM of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, appropriate instructions and instructions were given on them, and employees of the General Prosecutor's Office and the FSB regularly became acquainted with the materials of the operational case in order to carry out supervision.
As a result of operational development, it was established that on the territory of the Russian Federation with Since 2005, an organized criminal community (hereinafter referred to as OPC) has been operating, the leader of which is Malofeev, specializing in theft, fraud, extortion and raider takeovers of businesses.
A characteristic feature of this organized crime group is the widespread use of corruption connections to provide cover for the organization of criminal activities and evasion of criminal liability, as well as deep penetration into the authorities of the Russian Federation at various levels.
The total volume of the operational file containing materials regarding Malofeev’s criminal investigation exceeded 12 volumes, in connection with which a decision was made to implement operational development. Part of the operational materials regarding the participants of Malofeev’s criminal investigation into the theft of funds from the WEX exchange was legalized in accordance with current legislation and provided to the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for making a decision and organizing investigative measures.
For reasons that were unclear at the beginning, the leadership of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation announced the impossibility of investigating these facts directly by the investigators of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As the First Deputy Chief of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Krakovsky (participant in many corruption stories) officially stated, “due to the fact that the crime is not of an international or interregional nature and does not belong to the category of particularly serious ones” (C).
Department “K” was asked to transfer the received materials for investigation in the framework of one of the criminal cases initiated based on statements from injured depositors of the exchange. As a result, the legalized operational materials were added to the materials of the criminal case being investigated in the Chuvash Republic.
The result of the consideration of the received materials and the investigation of the criminal case was the receipt in September 2020 of the decisions of the judge of the Leninsky District Court of Cheboksary Egorova E.A. (No. 3/3-201/2020) to carry out searches at the places of residence of 6 persons: Konstantin Malofeev, Evgeniy Zhulanova, Anton Nemkin, Dmitry Sarychev, Dmitry Sutormin, Dmitry Khavchenko. Based on the results of the searches, arrests were planned.
Malofeev, having received information about planned searches and detentions, uses his administrative resources and fully utilizes his corrupt positions in order to evade criminal liability.
Already in October 2020, the criminal case was withdrawn from the investigation of the Chuvash Republic and accepted for proceedings by the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, which had previously refused on principle to carry out investigative actions in this case. Also, since October 2020, Satyukov, as a result of a sudden change in the vector of behavior of the leadership of the BSTM of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, has been gradually removed from both the operational development of participants in the organized crime group and from supporting the criminal case.
The Deputy Head of the BSTM of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Kozlov, gives instructions to urgently remove the participants of the Malofeev OPS from the operational register on absolutely fictitious grounds, the work on the material of the operational case actually stops. At the direction of the same Kozlov, certain materials of operational development, especially regarding the results of wiretapping Malofeev’s telephone conversations and his established corruption connections, are removed from the case, transferred to the archive, and some original official documents are even destroyed.
In addition to Satyukov, on the part of the leadership of the BSTM of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, repressions also begin against employees subordinate to him who have even a slight connection to the development of Malofeev’s OPS. As a result, more than 80% of the personnel quit the department in which Satyukov worked for various reasons, that is, the department is practically disbanded. In September 2021, Satyukov, realizing that all the developments he is carrying out are blocked at the management level, constant pressure is being put on him and he is strongly recommended to leave the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, writes an application for retirement based on length of service.
Thus, the leader of the OPS Malofeev and a number of active participants once again manage to avoid criminal liability for the theft of funds from users of the WEX crypto exchange in the amount of $450,000,000, despite the presence of a documented evidence base of their criminal activities.
Timofey Grishin
To be continued
Source: www.rucriminal.info