MOSCOW, October 29 (RAPSI, Kirill Ryabchikov) – The Moscow City Court on Monday upheld detention of Interprogress bank board member Valery Markelov, who had allegedly given a bribe to ex-Russian anti-corruption official Dmitry Zakharchenko, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.
Markelov will stay jailed until December 1.
According to investigation, the banker and his accomplices are suspected of giving a large-scale bribe to Zakharchenko between 2007 and 2016. Moreover, Markelov attempted to abscond during investigation or trial.
Ex-Russian anti-corruption official Dmitry Zakharchenko is charged with corruption and hindering conduct of preliminary investigation.
According to investigators, in 2014, Zakharchenko and his accomplice received $800,000 from a restaurant businessman. Initially, they demanded 5 million rubles ($75,000). In 2015, they allegedly demanded from that businessman a 50% discount card of his restaurants, and therefore the defendant saved over 3.5 million rubles during bill payment.
Moreover, investigators claim that in 2016, he warned a familiar woman about forthcoming searches as part of a fraud case and organized taking of all documents and office equipment out to prevent their seizure.
Zakharchenko was arrested on September 8, 2016, on suspicion of taking a 7-million-ruble (about $105,000) bribe. During searches at his sister’s apartment law enforcement officers found around 9 billion rubles. He denied any relation to the seized funds.