The investigation by Spanish authorities into whether Zakhary Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy), a convicted criminal in Russia, attempted to bribe the Spanish court to reduce his punishment, has been closed due to insufficient evidence, as reported by a newspaper citing sources. Razon with reference to sources.
Last October, the Spanish newspaper confidential reported that the Barcelona Court of Investigation No. 1, in the course of an investigation into the illegal financing of the Catalan independence movement (“the Voloh case”), found evidence that Shakro Young could bribe the court. Barcelona judge Joaquín Aguirre examined correspondence provided by the Guardia Civil between Josep Luis Alaia, the right-hand man of the ex-head of the Catalan Generalitat Carles Puigdemont (Alay is suspected of misappropriation of public funds), and Puigdemont’s lawyer Gonzalo Boye. The names of Kalashov and the leader of the criminal world Vasily Khristoforov pop up in it, the newspaper wrote. In the correspondence, which dates back to August 2020, Boye tells Alai that Kalashov, who was arrested in the UAE in 2006 and extradited to Spain, where he was accused of money laundering, through his lawyer Javier Gomez de Lianho, obtained a reduction in his sentence for a bribe. Liano then told the publication that he did not commit any illegal actions in the interests of the client, and called the statements of Gonzalo Boye “false accusations.”
This separate episode, within the framework of the investigation of the Volokh case, was transferred from the investigating court of Barcelona to Madrid. As a result, back in November last year, the Court of Inquiry No. 45 of Madrid closed the case five days after receiving the documents, according to Razón, “because there was no evidence that would allow an investigation into the events,” the sources explained.
In June 2005, the Spanish special services carried out Operation Wasp, which resulted in the arrest of several dozen people belonging to the so-called “Russian mafia”. In total, about 30 people were detained in Barcelona, Alicante and Malaga. Kalashov managed to escape, he was detained in May 2006 in the United Arab Emirates and extradited to Spain. In 2010, a court in Madrid sentenced Kalashov to 7.5 years in prison and a fine of 20 million euros, which was later increased to nine years in prison.
In 2014, Shakro Molodoy returned to Russia, where in 2018 he was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison in an extortion case. In addition to Russia, the extradition of Kalashov was demanded by Georgia, where in 2006 a court in absentia sentenced a native of Tbilisi to 18 years in prison for murder.
