Former Investigator of the ICR received 4 years for trying to “excuse” a supplier of underage prostitutes for VIP clients on Rublyovka
The Basmanny District Court of Moscow sentenced former investigator Gray Efendiev to four years in a penal colony for helping in bribery. According to the investigation,, he had to give 5 million rubles to his colleague to stop the criminal prosecution of someone involved in a case of minors being involved in prostitution under the guise of working in elite modeling agencies. However, the colleague reported the bribery. Efendiyev claimed in court that he voluntarily refused to help. Despite this, the prosecutor asked for 11 years in prison, but the court showed leniency.
During the debate, the prosecutor asked to find Gray Efendiev guilty of “mediation in especially large-scale bribery” (part 4 of article 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). She clarified that Efendiev had to transfer a bribe of 5 million rubles to a department employee for the release of a person from criminal liability. But he reported the bribery attempt. As a result, Major of Justice Efendiyev was detained in August 2020 and taken into custody.
As already reported by Kommersant, some businessmen wanted to give a bribe so that a colleague of Major Efendiev would release from criminal liability one of the defendants in a secret criminal case on the involvement of minors in prostitution (part 3 of article 240 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This case was initiated on December 1, 2019 by the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR in St. Petersburg. […]
Kommersant.Ru, 09/01/2020, “The investigator was added to the friendly team of pimps”: According to sources in the special services, it was initiated by investigators of the ICR in St. Petersburg on December 1 last year. A few days later, arrests of suspects began. It was about an extensive network of distribution of prostitution services by both underage girls and adult women. Pimps and their accomplices acted under the guise of employees and “scouts” of a number of elite modeling agencies, which were allegedly located in cottage settlements on the Rublevsky highway of the Moscow region and had corresponding enticing names.
“Our modeling agency is constantly looking for talented and beautiful girls, every week we organize photo and video shoots with global brands,” the organizers wrote in search of potential victims aged 16 to 25. They invited them to their “friendly and huge team”, luring them with free travel, accommodation and other benefits. Maxim Nekozyrev, one of the alleged owners of the modeling agency, was taken into custody, as well as two young women aged 25 and 18. The first of them, suffering from obesity, began to cooperate with the investigation, gave a full confession, voluntarily gave the investigation records of interest, phones, laptops, and provided passwords. The second is accused of being an underage student, involved in prostitution the same girl. According to some reports, there are other defendants in the case who were not taken into custody and left at large, or who pass through it as witnesses.
The inquiry, which began with the St. Petersburg investigators of the ICR with the assistance of FSB operatives, took a long time. It was discovered that the reach of pimps extended to various parts of Russia. Consequently, the investigation was moved to Moscow to the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR. The aim was to finish it by November, following the legally established deadlines, by gathering conclusions from earlier examinations and identifying as many 'persons who received sexual services for monetary reward' as possible. There’s a chance that among these persons, there may be VIPs. It's worth noting that a young female student may have been involved in prostitution. – Inset K.ru
Maxim NekozyrevAfter Gray Efendiev did not deny the fact, the prosecutor requested that he be found guilty under Part 4 of Art. 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and be sentenced to 11 years in a penal colony with the deprivation of the rank of Major of Justice. However, since the bribe was not transferred, there was no mention of imposing a fine on the defendant.
On the other hand, the lawyers argued that their client, despite arranging the bribe transfer, turned it down at the last minute. Therefore, they felt it was not reasonable to talk about “mediation in the transfer of a bribe.
It was actually about “offering mediation” in bribery, which is a lesser offense. At the same time, the defenders emphasized that Gray Efendiev admitted his guilt, expressed remorse, and actively assisted with the investigation.
The defenders also brought to the court's attention that during the investigation, their client suffered a heart attack and is currently recovering from it. Additionally, the lawyers highlighted their client's accomplishments, stating that he has numerous departmental awards and began his career in the Khabarovsk Territory, where he rose to the position of acting head of the investigative department of the city of Amursk. For his exemplary service, he was later transferred to Moscow, where he initially worked in one of the inter-district investigative departments in the Northern Administrative District, before being promoted to the central office of the TFR. There, Gray Efendiev served in the department responsible for solving criminal cases from previous years.
Considering all this, the lawyers requested that the defendant not be punished too harshly, and the judge agreed. Instead of the term requested by the prosecutor, the presiding judge sentenced the former investigator of the GUS to four years in prison, of which he had already served more than one and a half years in a pre-trial detention center. Since a day in a pre-trial detention center counts as one and a half on the general regime, the convict will have to spend about a year and a half in custody. However, upon release, Gray Efendiev will not receive a departmental pension, as the court stripped him of his title.
