Yesterday, Sunday the 23d of July, Russian media “Rosbalt” announced that its informant in Russian law enforcement told the agency about new developments in its investigation of a convicted former police officer of department “T” of GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Dmitriy Zakharchenko. Namely, the Russian investigative Committee uncovered evidence of Swiss bank accounts that Zakharchenko had access to.
According to the media source investigators continue to collect data about the convicted policeman’s activities that led to him receiving multimillion profits in euros and dollars. Recently they uncovered new evidence, suggesting that Zakharchenko acted as a “go-to-guy” for a whole group of Russian businessmen.
The scheme was quite simple: when the aforementioned entrepreneurs encountered problems with the department “T” of GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, they were transferred to Zakharchenko via a high-profile network of officials and businessmen. The then police officer conveyed to troubled entrepreneurs what it would take to make their problems go away in monetary terms. If agreed upon, he sent them details of bank accounts in euros and dollars opened by Panama company “Divontal services S.A.” founded in 2014 in Falcon Private bank in Zurich. The costs of Zakharchenko services often summed up to millions of dollars and euros.
The investigation uncovered that, although “Divontal services S.A.” was registered by non-Russian citizens, the aforementioned accounts were managed by Zakharchenko’s father Victor and were accessed by Zakharchenko himself. At this moment Russian authorities are preparing an official inquiry that they will send to Switzerland regarding Falcon Private bank accounts and the sources of their contents.
Last year on the 9th of September Dmitriy Zakharchenko was arrested on suspicion of bribery and the abuse of power and spent the next two months in pre-trial detention. While searching the premises investigators uncovered 120 mln in euros. The convicted policeman said that he was just keeping the money as requested by some bankers he knew.
At that time the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin Dmitriy Peskov told the press that it is too early to sack higher-ups of Ministry of Internal Affairs: “As far as I know, there are no decisions about dismissal at this point. First, one has to wait for the results of the investigation, before attempting to judge the consequences of this matter. Evidently, the process has just begun, and later, of course, in any case, the court proceeding is necessary. Before the investigation comes to an end it is impossible and hard to give any estimates”, – Peskov said.
Later Russian media Republic that was then known as Slon published a report about four apartments, that allegedly belonged to Zakharchenko, but were officially registered to his relatives or people with the same surname. According to the state real estate registry, one person named Zakharchenko owns a five-bedroom apartment that occupies 250.8 square meters of space in a luxurious Moscow apartment building called Barkli Plaza. Another Zakharchenko named Victor (no apparent connection to the former policeman’s father) owned a 170 square meter flat in a deluxe residential building “Imperial House”, located near the Russian capital’s center, before donating it to someone called Uliana Zakharchenko at the end of 2013, who to this day remains the apartment’s owner. The convicted Dmitriy Zakharchenko’s sister Elena Razgulova has an apartment in another palatial Moscow complex “Dominion”, which occupies 143 square meters and costs 85 mln rubles ($1.43 mln). According to Republic media the money connected to Zakharchenko’s conviction were uncovered in his sister’s flat. Finally, the arrested former policeman owns a modest 73 square meter apartment in Moscow apartment building “Shuvalovsky”.
Sources: Росбалт, Poluostrov News.
