MOSCOW. Nov 1 (Interfax) - Federal Security Service (FSB) Colonel Kirill Cherkalin, who is charged with bribery and fraud, has partially acknowledged the claim of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, which is seeking forfeiture to the state of the property of the officer's relatives and those close to him worth a total of more than six billion rubles.
"We partially acknowledge the claim," the colonel's lawyer Vladimir Mikhailov said at a hearing in the Moscow Golovinsky District Court on Friday.
The details on Cherkalin's position will become available later.
The Prosecutor General's Office earlier said it has been determined that Cherkalin had provided incomplete information on his income whilst an official and the value of his property considerably exceeded his official income.
The colonel used some of the money received from sources not envisaged by law to buy property that he registered to his relatives and friends, the Prosecutor General's Office said.
On the basis of a probe, the supervisory body filed a lawsuit seeking forfeiture to the state of the 800 million rubles, $72 million, and eight million euros found in the course of the investigative actions conducted in Cherkalin's residence, car and office, five apartments, two houses, six plots of land covering a total area of 7,116 square meters, 14 non-residential properties, and also two vehicles. The entire property and money are worth 6.3 million rubles.
A Prosecutor General's Office official specified the agency's claims at a hearing on Friday: as well as the property stated in the claim, the agency is seeking forfeiture to the state of over 40 expensive watches, at least 15 designer label bags, and jewelry, including cuff links, necklaces, bracelets, and pendants.
The total legal income of Cherkalin, his relatives, and those close to him was no more than 55 million rubles in 2005-2019, the Prosecutor General's Office said.
The Federal Security Service's Public Relations Center reported on the detention of Kirill Cherkalin, the head of the 2nd department of Directorate K of the Economic Security Service of the Federal Security Service, on April 25. The 235th garrison military court put him under arrest on the same day. He is now charged with large-scale fraud and large-scale bribery.
According to the investigators, the officer "received from citizen Nazarov through a mediator an especially large bribe in an amount of $850,000 (an equivalent of over 52 million rubles) for actions and the lack thereof in favor of the bribe giver and a commercial structure, and also general protection, whilst an official in the period between November 2013 and February 2015."
According to materials of the criminal case, members of an organized group that included Cherkalin misled businessman Sergei Glyadelkin, "saying he might be prosecuted and that might jeopardize the implementation of investment projects to build residential buildings in the territory of Moscow" in 2011.
The investigators believe the aggrieved party was convinced as a result of that to give the group his stake in the charter capital of the limited liability company Yurpromkonsulting worth at least 490 million rubles.