Kireev Alexander

Biography

2024

Confiscation of property

On July 4, 2024, it became known that the Prosecutor General's Office was confiscating the assets of Alexander Kireev, a former employee of the central office of the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR), who is accused of bribery. He is a defendant in a case related to the organization of a criminal community to send the co-founders of Merlion to jail and extort 15 billion rubles from them for release.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, Colonel of Justice Kireev has held a number of responsible positions for 12 years of service in the central office of the TFR. In particular, he was responsible for countering threats to employees in the main organizational and inspection department of the TFR, was engaged in documentation in the control department of Alexander Bastrykin, considered complaints about the actions and inaction of his colleagues, etc. In addition, he headed the internal inspection unit.

𝓲

Freepik

Kireev's official income from 2011 to 2022 amounted to about 21.3 million rubles. According to supervisory authorities, almost all of these funds should have been spent on maintaining a family - a spouse who had no income, and two children. However, Kireev actively acquired real estate, which he registered with his parents. So, in 2016, he bought an apartment with an area of ​ ​ 107.8 square meters. m on Bolshaya Naberezhnaya Street in Moscow worth 17, 6 million rubles. Then four parking spaces were purchased for a total of 8.2 million rubles, apartments for 26.2 million and 19.2 million rubles in the elite Dynasty residential complex on Khoroshevskoye Shosse, as well as apartments in the Khoroshevsky residential complex for 32.6 million rubles. In addition, a number of objects were acquired or built by the Kireevs Sr. themselves: their total cost exceeded 30 million rubles.

The Prosecutor General's Office believes that Kireev devoted himself "not to honest service in the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, but to corrupt enrichment of himself, his relatives and persons in close relations with him." On this basis, the department demands to confiscate real estate from the Kireev family and recover 26 million rubles from them as the equivalent of previously sold objects.^[1]

Major fraud charge

In early September 2024, the Khoroshevsky Court of Moscow charged the former deputy head of the eighth department (service checks) of the personnel department of the TFR Alexander Kireev, who is involved in the Merlion case. He is charged with major fraud, evidence tampering, bribery and participation in an organized criminal community.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, Kireev, according to investigators, participated in the fabrication of the case of co-owners of the IT company Merlion, followed by extortion of 15 billion rubles from them for ending the criminal prosecution. It is alleged, in particular, that the defendant organized an audit against officials of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the Moscow Region, who refused to initiate a criminal case at the request of ex-Merlion CEO Vyacheslav Simonenko. Kireev's accomplice, Denis Nikolaev, also appears in this case.

source = CKP

In addition, Kireev is charged with fraud and taking bribes. According to the investigation, in 2019, the defendant, together with a colleague from the regional headquarters of the TFR Seliverstov, convinced the famous businessman Konstantin Ponomarev, who was serving time for attempted fraud, to give them bribes for assisting in withdrawing the lawsuit filed against him, removing the arrest from his accounts, parole from the colony and non-excitation of new cases. The defendants received 80 million rubles from the lawyer of the entrepreneur Alexander Tsyupko, after which they began to demand almost 4 billion rubles.

Kireev himself does not admit guilt. According to his lawyer Andrei Smitsky, who refers to the prosecutor's speech, Kireev did not take part in extorting money from the co-owners of Merlion. According to the second episode, it is alleged that Kireev and Tsyupko communicated once in 2019, and then the lawyer tried to find out how his client, businessman Ponomarev, was doing. After that, Kireev did not contact the lawyer.^[2]

A story about a fraudulent scheme of ex-TFR employees involved in the Merlion case

On October 7, 2024, it became known that at the trial in the case of a former employee of the central office of the TFR Alexander Kireev and his alleged accomplice Denis Nikolaev, accused of falsifying the case of co-owners of the IT company Merlion and extorting 15 billion rubles from them, businessman Konstantin Ponomarev spoke. He spoke about a fraudulent scheme to extort almost 4 billion rubles from him.

Ponomarev became widely known thanks to litigation with IKEA for tens of billions of rubles. In July 2018, the Lyubertsy City Court of the Moscow Region found Ponomarev guilty of organizing a deliberately false denunciation (part 3 of article 33 and part 3 of article 306 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and sentenced him to eight years in prison. Then the Solnechnogorsk City Court of the Moscow Region convicted the businessman for attempted fraud (part 3 of article 30 and part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) in connection with the filing of a claim for the return of his diesel generators and the collection of rent for their use in Crimea from 2014 to 2020. Ponomarev is also accused of embezzling 38 bills of leading Russian banks worth over 1 billion rubles from the bankrupt Lesbank.

𝓲

SUPERMAO/Adobe Stock

According to Ponomarev, he became a victim of a criminal group, which included Kireev and Nikolaev, as well as ex-lawyer Alexander Tsyupko. The latter, allegedly, promised Ponomarev the termination of the first case and the cancellation of the verdict. Tsyupko spoke about the release on bail of 100 million rubles. According to Ponomarev, having received this money, Tsyupko disappeared a few days before the appeal, and the verdict remained in force.

Then, as Ponomarev says, when they began to judge him in the second case, Tsyupko again came to his pre-trial detention center and, promising to return 100 million, offered to "resolve the issue" with the termination of the second case for 2.7 billion rubles in cash. In the future, the amount increased to 3.9 billion rubles. Realizing that "this is not negotiations, but extortion," Ponomarev turned to law enforcement agencies. On March 30, 2022, Tsyupko was detained when leaving the pre-trial detention center with a power of attorney from Ponomarev to receive 1.3 billion rubles.^[3]

Notes