Former Russian Investigator Sentenced to 16 Years for Accepting $73 Million in Bitcoin Bribes

A former Russian investigator has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for accepting bribes in Bitcoin. This case is a significant moment in Russian legal history.

Marat Tambiyev took in about $73 million in Bitcoin from organized criminals he was supposed to be investigating. This amount is more than five times the previous record for the highest bribe in Russia, according to reports from Reuters and local media.

Prosecutors say that Tambiyev moved over half of the Bitcoin into his own wallets. This allowed the criminals to keep the rest instead of seizing all their assets for the state. Investigators found the keys to these wallets in a file called "Pension" on his laptop.

In court, Tambiyev claimed he was innocent. He argued that his actions actually helped the state recover some of the crime group's money. He plans to appeal his conviction, as reported by Russian state media.

So far, more than a third of the funds that were on Tambiyev's computer have been recovered. However, the location of the remaining Bitcoin is still unclear.

Additionally, an alleged accomplice of Tambiyev received a nine-year prison sentence in connection with this case.

This isn't the first time criminals have used Bitcoin to bribe officials. In 2022, the U.S. Justice Department reported that Chinese intelligence officers paid $61,000 in Bitcoin as bribes to a double agent working with the FBI.