MOSCOW. Aug 3 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court fully upheld the conviction of Dmitry Zakharchenko, a former employee of the Russian Interior Ministry's anti-corruption department, for taking more than 1.4 billion rubles in bribes, the court's press service told Interfax.
"The sentence relating to the penalty imposed on Zakharchenko was left unchanged," the spokesperson said on Thursday.
The court also dropped the criminal case against another co-defendant, a former owner of Group 1520, Valery Markelov, due to his death.
The sentences of two other convicts, Zakharchenko's accomplices Viktor Belevtsev and Vasily Kritinin, were left unchanged, the press service said.
Zakharchenko had asked the appeals court to quash his conviction and replace it with acquittal.
On May 17, 2022, Moscow's Presnensky District Court sentenced Zakharchenko to 16 years in a high-security penal colony. Zakharchenko was also fined 500 million rubles and barred from holding public service positions for nine years.
Markelov was sentenced then to eight years in a high-security penal colony with a fine of 500 million rubles. The court sentenced Belevtsov and Kritinin to seven years in a high-security penal colony each.
Following the Moscow City Court's decision, the sentence came into effect and is subject to enforcement.
Zakharchenko was found guilty of taking an especially large bribe, Markelov of giving a bribe, Belevtsov and Kritinin of mediation in bribery.
According to the case, Zakharchenko received a particularly large bribe totaling more than 1.4 billion rubles from a group of businessmen, namely, Markelov, as well as Boris Usherovich, Ivan Stankevich and Dmitry Motorin, who are currently wanted and arrest warrants are issued for them in Russia, "for general patronage in the service" from 2007 to 2016.
Investigators discovered that the latter set up and used the so-called "platform" where illegal financial transactions were conducted.
At various times, according to the indictment, Zakharchenko, who was identified in the registration system of the "platform" as "Zakhar Khitry (Cunning)," "Partner" and "Cherry," gained access to non-cash funds in a virtual account, first 150,000 rubles per month, and then 20% of the monthly income from the "platform."
Additionally, as the indictment said, Zakharchenko "for actions in favor of the briber" received from businessman Avsholum Yunayev 844,000 rubles in the form of payments for accommodation services in the Grand Hotel Polyana, and the Polyana 1389 Hotel and Spa in the Krasnodar Territory.
The case was investigated by the Russian Investigative Committee.
None of the defendants pleaded guilty. The defense insisted on their acquittal by the court.
Markelov's defense lawyers also said he had been diagnosed with cancer, making his detention impossible.
In 2019, Zakharchenko was sentenced to 12 and a half years in a high-security penal colony with a fine of 118 million rubles and deprivation of the rank of colonel for obstruction of justice and taking a bribe in the form of a discount card, with which he saved 3 million rubles in the La Maree restaurant chain. At the same time, a former employee of the Interior Ministry was cleared with the right to rehabilitation of another instance of bribery he was charged with, namely, the illegal taking of $800,000.
The former colonel, who was arrested on September 10, 2016, called the criminal cases against him "fake".
Zakharchenko became notorious after cash in various currencies totaling about 8 billion rubles was discovered in his half-sister's apartment in 2016 and later forfeited to the state.