Three Former Moscow Police Officers Sentenced to Up to 14 Years for Embezzling Garantex Client Assets

A Moscow court has sentenced three former police officers for embezzling client assets from Garantex, with prison terms set on August 24 ranging from 12 to 14 years. The gang embezzled over 30 million rubles from cryptocurrency platform accounts. The convicted individuals include former senior investigator Antonina Shakina and former senior detectives Renat Bakhtiev and Leonid Golubev, all found guilty of bribery, forgery, and abuse of power; Shakina and Bakhtiev were also held accountable for large-scale fraud. Bakhtiev received a 14-year prison sentence, while the other two defendants were sentenced to 12 years each. The court also imposed fines of 6.5 million rubles on each and ordered the three to collectively pay over 31 million rubles in compensation for material damages to three victims. The investigation began in the spring of 2023 after Alexander Sazonov reported that 24.8 million rubles he had deposited in Garantex were embezzled. The investigation also linked the defendants to the withdrawal of 6.2 million rubles from two other clients. The scheme involved false reports and forged court rulings to freeze assets, after which the funds were transferred to accounts associated with the gang. The individuals involved were detained the following October. Garantex operated in the Moscow City financial center, providing cryptocurrency trading and international transfer services, initially registered in Estonia under the name Garantex Europe.

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