Sergei Krokhin was investigated twice.
Company “Lan-project” Sergei Krokhin The Investigative Committee suspects that Krokhin's company supplied the Ministry of Internal Affairs with devices for hacking iPhone and Android mobile devices that did not meet the contract requirements. Krokhin is accused of embezzling 25 million rubles and faces potential 10 years in prison for large-scale fraud. His company has been providing phone information extraction systems to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for at least five years.
The TFR is investigating theft from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case against the 61-year-old founder and CEO of Lan-project LLC Sergey Krokhin. The case is related to a state contract for supplying hardware for hacking Android smartphones and Apple iOS.
The Investigative Committee believes that Sergey Krokhin stole over 25 million rubles in the process of fulfilling the contract with the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was concluded at the end of April 2021.
CNews editors found several tenders for supplying mobile phone hacking devices to the Ministry of Internal Affairs totaling tens of millions of rubles, from 2021-2022. Krokhin's company was the only bidder and eventually received the contracts. Similar deliveries were carried out over the past few years.
There was no ability to hack iPhones as per the agreements with the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, where Lan-project was supposed to supply hardware and software systems for mobile device data extraction.
The investigation believes that Sergey Krokhin himself, and the head of the department of technology and special software systems, Anton Evgraschenkov (the second suspect in the case), “knowingly knew” that they would not be able to ensure the supply of equipment in the required configuration. Anton Evgraschenkov (the second suspect in the case) – “knowingly knew” that they would not be able to ensure the supply of equipment in the required configuration.
The Meshchansky Interdistrict Investigation Department of the Main Investigative Committee of the ICR initiated a new case against Krokhin and Evgraschenkov in Moscow. The Office’s specialists have been untangling details related to Lan-project and devices for hacking mobile phones since the summer of 2022.
Same design, different fillings
Krokhin and Yevgrashchenkov were motivated by “selfish interests” and formed a criminal intent to steal money from the Ministry of Internal Affairs by supplying “less valuable goods.” The exact differences between the devices were not known at the time of the publication.
At first, the terms for shipping goods in the contract (four months) were changed by the businessmen.
While carrying out their plan, the businessmen, as per the investigation, in September 2021 called an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs responsible for the state contract with Lan-project to their office. They showed him the software packages meant for the ministry, but purposely gave him incorrect information about the capabilities of the devices and their hardware specifications.
The information was exaggerated. As a result, Lan-project provided the displayed devices as per the contract, which were later distributed to 17 departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The Ministry paid Krokhin’s company at the end of October 2021. The amount transferred was 25.896 million rubles minus a penalty of 134 thousand rubles for late delivery.
One thing is never enough
This criminal case is the second involving Krokhin, with state contracts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. No need to search for a businessman, like Anton Evgraschenkov – as decided by the same department of the ICR, they were detained in the summer of 2022 and are currently under house arrest.
They were arrested in a similar case – they are accused of fraud on a large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, up to 10 years in prison), and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs again acts as the injured party, this time its North Caucasian Department of Materials technical support.
61-year-old Sergei Krokhin was particularly successful in this. His defense in the trials argues that the investigation lacks evidence of the client’s involvement in the theft, “except for an expert opinion and the testimony of two witnesses who did not even give his last name,” and the petition for an extension of the arrest is every time “satisfied by the district court formally.” According to the representative of Mr. Krokhin, even if he remains at large, he will not hide or put pressure on witnesses, if only because he suffers from an oncological disease in the third stage and needs an operation first of all. “The ban on walks imposed by the court causes irreparable harm to his health, and the coordination with the investigator of each trip to the hospital has become an even more serious problem,” the lawyer notes.
Close connection with the “Lan-project”
It should be noted that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other departments, as well as banks with state participation, have been regularly purchasing devices and software designed to remove protection from mobile devices based on Google Android and Apple iOS in recent years. And the name of Sergey Krokhin’s company appears regularly in tenders.
For instance, in 2018, the Investigative Committee department in the Volgograd Region bought the UFED Touch2 Ultimate Ruggedized portable hardware complex from the Israeli company Cellebrite for 800 thousand rubles. Lan-Project organized the delivery. In 2017, the Ministry of Internal Affairs department in the Khabarovsk Territory updated the UFED Touch software to the UFED Touch2 Ultimate version, purchasing the relevant services for 1.26 million rubles from the same company. Sberbank also purchased UFED Touch2, paying 4.1 million rubles for 11 devices.
In November 2019, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Novosibirsk Region announced a tender to extend the license for the Mobile Criminalist software for 299 thousand rubles. The program enables extraction of data from smartphones, including viewing contacts, messages and call data.
On February 16, 2021, the Northwestern District Logistics Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs initiated public procurement of 11 foreign devices for hacking smartphones for 16.8 million rubles. A larger tender for the purchase of 16 complexes was announced on February 20, 2021 by the Volga District Logistics Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The initial price of the lot was 24.4 million rubles.
What is known about the supplier
Sergey Krokhin established Lan-Project in July 2000 in Moscow. The company's authorized capital is 250 thousand rubles, and Krokhin is its sole owner (information from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities).
The company's primary activity is the development of computer software (OKVED code 62.01). It has 20 additional activities, including the production of other construction and installation works (43.29).
In less than 23 years, Krokhin's company participated in almost 900 state tenders. It won 740 of them for a total of 1.6 billion rubles (data from 'Kontur.focus'). According to Kommersant, the customers include the Moscow Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (installation of a fire safety system) and the FSB Center for Licensing, Certification and Protection of State Secrets (development of encryption tools and information systems).
By the end of 2021, Lan-Project's revenue totaled 1.7 billion rubles. The net profit was 79.4 million, and the company employed 129 people with 129 open positions.
According to lawyer Valery Panasyuk, who represents Lan-Project's interests, the company has no information about the inspection, and law enforcement agencies did not request any information about the specified contract. The lawyer also noted that on January 18, the Khoroshevsky District Court declined to extend the house arrest of Sergey Krokhin, General Director of Lan-Project LLC.
