Moscow Cops Jailed for $200M Extortion Scheme

A Moscow court has sentenced six law enforcement officers to between 14 and 19 years in prison for their roles in a criminal gang that fabricated evidence and extorted victims. The group, which included two senior officials from the Investigative Committee, Sergey Romodanovsky and Rustam Yusupov, targeted the Merlion Group conglomerate.

Prosecutors stated the officers conspired to seize control of the company by creating a false criminal case against its shareholders. They demanded a bribe of 15 billion rubles ($200 million) to drop these fabricated charges. The gang also allegedly accepted a bribe of 109 million rubles ($1.42 million) in a separate case and demanded €10 million ($11.88 million) for interference in another matter.

The criminal group, allegedly formed in 2019, also involved two alleged fixers, Kirill and Vitaly Kachur, who are reportedly in the UAE and wanted by Russia. The scheme involved staging an arson attack to create a fabricated assassination probe against Merlion Group shareholders. The victims were initially detained, but their lawyers successfully moved the case, leading to the scheme's unraveling.