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Biography
2021
Arrest in Switzerland
In June 2021, it became known about the arrest in Switzerland of Russian Vladislav Klyushin, known for creating the M-13 company, which specializes in IT products for monitoring media and social networks. The M-13 website says that the decisions of the company are used by the presidential administration of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation and federal departments.
According to the Swiss website Gotham City, which analyzes information from the justice authorities, citing materials from the Federal Criminal Court and the Swiss Supreme Court, Klushin was taken into custody back in March 2021. He was detained during a family vacation at a ski resort. The official representative of the Federal Office of Justice of Switzerland Ignrid Reiser confirmed to RIA Novosti the information about the arrest.
A Meduza source close to the M-13 also confirmed the arrest of the Russian businessman, and the company itself refrained from commenting at the request of the publication.
According to the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, by June 9, 2021, Vladislav Klyushin is under arrest in the detention center of the city of Sion and is awaiting possible extradition to the United States on charges of insider trading worth tens of millions of dollars. Details of the case were not disclosed.[1]
A spokeswoman for the Swiss Justice Department told reporters that Klushin opposed his extradition to the United States. He appealed on May 20, 2021, but the court rejected it.
In addition to the M-13 company, Vladislav Klyushin was also associated with the popular political telegram channel Nezygar: the Project edition, in particular, wrote about this. Klyushin filed a lawsuit against the authors of the article and lost in the first instance, but then the Moscow City Court made the opposite decision, and Proekt had to issue a refutation.
Telegram channel "Nezygar" is conducted anonymously and supplies political insights. The channel has 335,000 subscribers (by June 9, 2021), including officials of the highest ranks.
Extradition to the United States
On December 13, 2021, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court rejected Vladislav Klyushin's appeal against the decision to extradite him to the court. The court USA noted the lack of grounds to question the independence of the American judicial system USA and pointed to obtaining sufficient grounds to prosecute the Russian entrepreneur who founded the company "," M13 which, among other things, developed MEDIA the Katyusha monitoring system for the Kremlin administration.
The court rejected the Russian's argument that he was the victim of an American political campaign designed to "catch him on trumped-up insider trading charges."
On December 13, 2021, lawyers for Vladislav Klyushin, who was arrested in Switzerland at the request of the United States, filed a cassation appeal against the verdict of the Swiss Federal Criminal Court, which confirmed the decision to extradite a Russian citizen to the United States.
In August 2021, the Federal Department of Justice refused Russia's request to extradite Klyushin to the country. The motive for the refusal was that the acts set out in the Russian request for extradition are not punishable in Switzerland.
The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said earlier in 2021 that the department had been dealing with the situation with the detention of Klyushin for several months.
According to the British newspaper The Times, the United States is confident that Klyushin was involved in an attempt to interfere in the presidential election in 2016. The entrepreneur allegedly led the operation of the Russian special services and was related to hacker attacks on the servers of the US Democratic Party.
As reported, the TASS Russian was charged with "hacking against, and IBM Tesla other American multinational companies," and it was allegedly about "stealing more than $10 million." The Russian himself said Bloomberg that he did not know the reason for the arrest.[2]
2022: Bloomberg: Klyushin had access to GRU data
In early January 2022, it became known about the accusation of Vladislav Klyushin in insider trading. According to Bloomberg sources, the entrepreneur had access to classified information about various major GRU operations abroad.
The publication says Vladislav Klyushin had access to documents relating to a Russian marketing campaign to hack Democratic Party servers during the 2016 US election. These documents, according to the interlocutors, allow us to establish that the hack was led by a group from the GRU of the Russian Navy, which American cybersecurity corporations dubbed Fancy Bear or APT28. This cache for the first time provided the United States with detailed documentary evidence of Russia's alleged efforts to influence the US elections.
In the two years leading up to his departure from Russia, Klyushin was approached by US and UK spy companies and given an increased level of security in Switzerland, according to the data. In addition, he missed the last opportunity to achieve his extradition, which caused bewilderment of many observers in Moscow. His transition to the United States represents a serious intelligence blow to the Kremlin, Bloomberg notes.
According to the agency, Klyushin's subordinates included former naval intelligence officer Ivan Yermakov, who is charged in the indictment along with Klyushin. Klushin's lawyer in Switzerland, Oliver Chiric, said he was not aware of what documents his client might have, if any. In the interview, Chiric said his client is being sought by U.S. authorities as they believe he has classified information about hacking into the 2016 U.S. election that he could imagine avoiding years behind bars on insider-selling charges.
Klyushin's American lawyer Maxim Germans, writing an application for bail, noted that his client intends to challenge the US government's version in a legal, professional and principled way. Klyushin is ready to appear for indictment on January 3, 2022. Klushin's extradition means federal law enforcement has not stopped "pursuing a radical violation of U.S. sovereignty during the 2016 election that included criminal conduct."[3]
2023: Sentence - 9 years in prison
On September 7, 2023, a court in Boston (USA) sentenced Vladislav Klyushin to nine years in prison in a cyber fraud case. The Russian businessman himself, who founded the IT company M13, pleaded not guilty.
The prosecutor's office demanded to give Klyushin 14 years in prison, the defense proposed to reduce the term to three years and credit them with two and a half years, during which Klyushin was in custody during the trial. After serving his sentence, Klyushin will be deported from the United States.
According to the representative of the American prosecutor's office, Seth Kosto, a lenient sentence will allow Klyushin to return to Russia and again engage in illegal activities. He also stated that the businessman has connections in the highest echelons of the Russian government.
In turn, Klyushin's defense indicated that the businessman had children in Russia and would not allow them to be raised for a long time. Lawyer Maxim Germans insisted on a three-year term that would allow his ward to soon be free, given the 2.5 years he had already spent in custody in the United States.
Klyushin's other lawyer, Oliver Sirik, pointed out that American justice never proved the businessman's guilt. According to him, the only reason for the court was Klyushin's connections with the Russian authorities.
In February 2023, a federal jury in Boston found Klyushin guilty of cybercrime. He and other defendants in the case are charged with participation in a criminal conspiracy, electronic fraud and securities fraud. According to investigators, Klyushin and others earned tens of millions of dollars by hacking into US computer networks to obtain insider information about public companies. The Russian and his accomplices could use this information for trading on the stock exchange, the investigation claims. Klyushin himself denies the allegations.[4]
2024: Return to Russia
On August 1, 2024, the FSB of the Russian Federation reported that as a result of an exchange at Ankara airport, eight Russians detained and imprisoned in a number of NATO countries were returned to their homeland. Among them - Vladislav Klyushin, founder of the technology company M13 and creator of the IT monitoring system for the Kremlin.
The official statement of the FSB says that Russian citizens were exchanged for a group of persons acting in the interests of foreign states to the detriment of the security of the Russian Federation. President Vladimir Putin personally met the Russians at the airport, saying that those related to military service would be presented to state awards.
The wife of businessman Vladislav Klyushin Zhannetta, who returned to Russia, told RIA Novosti that her husband feels good and is glad to be at home. At the same time, his lawyer Maxim Germans emphasizes that as of the beginning of August 2024, there is no clarity with the status of the Klyushin case, whom the American authorities sentenced to nine years in prison for securities fraud using electronic means. Germans notes that if a businessman does not receive a pardon, the defense will continue to prove his innocence in an American court.
 | No one reported his [Klyushin's] exchange in advance, everything was classified. Let's see what happens to his case in the United States, whether he received a pardon from [US President Joe Biden]. It is quite possible that his case will be opened, and we will continue to appeal, - TASS quoted Nemtsev as saying. |  |
At the same time, as part of the exchange, several citizens of this country returned to the United States. Vladimir Putin signed decrees on the pardon of these persons "in order to return Russian citizens detained and imprisoned on the territory of foreign states."[5]
Notes
- ↑ Switzerland mulls extradition of Russian businessman to US
- ↑ Swiss court allows U.S. extradition of Russian businessman
- ↑ U.S. Catches Kremlin Insider Who May Have Secrets of 2016 Hack
- ↑ Russian man with Kremlin ties gets 9 years in US prison for hacking and insider trading scheme
- ↑ The lawyer said that the situation around Klyushin's exchange became clear only the day before
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