MOSCOW, August 25 (RAPSI) – The Second Western District Military Court on Wednesday upheld 7-year prison term given to reserve lieutenant colonel of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Kirill Cherkalin for taking bribes. The sentence came into force, RAPSI was told in the court.
He was convicted in April. According to the court ruling, Cherkalin was also banned from holding law enforcement posts for3 years, deprived of his colonel rank and second-class medal of the Order of Merit for the Motherland.
The case was heard under a special procedure, without examination of evidence and interrogation of witnesses, as the defendant had signed a plea deal with investigators. Cherkalin admitted receipt of a bribe in the amount of $850,000 from a businessman for the common protection.
According to the website of the financial crimes agency Rosfinmonitoring, Cherkalin represented FSB in the Interdepartmental Anti-money laundering Commission. Investigators believe that his illegal activity lasted from November 2013 to February 2015.
Questions to experts
In the meantime, lawyers from Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners believe the forensic examination conducted as to the the Yurpromconsulting company count of the case is faithless and turned to Russia’s Investigative Committee and Prosecutor General’s Office seeking the check to check investigators’ actions for several crimes including tampering with evidence and results of law enforcement intelligence operations (Article 303 of the Russian Criminal Code), abuse of power (Article 285), illegal institution of a criminal case (Article 299, Part 3), accessory in money laundering (Article 33, Part 5 and Article 174.1).
Asset seizure
In November 2019, Moscow’s Golovinsky District Court forfeited to the state assets of Cherkalin and his family worth over 6 billion rubles (about $80 million at the current exchange rate), including four apartments, two cottages, six land plots with a total area of 7,116 square meters, 14 nonresidential premises, 2 cars, 800 million rubles, $72 million and over 8 million euros found during the investigative activities in Cherkalin’s premises.
