Corruption

Russians Marvel at Anti-Corruption Cop’s $131 Million Cash Pile

This probably wasn’t the kind of publicity for Russia’s campaign against corruption that the Kremlin might have wished for.

Russia’s Investigative Committee posted a picture of stacks of bills inside a safe after it seized 8.5 billion rubles ($131 million) in cash from a Moscow apartment. It said the money came from an apartment of Dmitry Zakharchenko, a police colonel who heads an anti-corruption unit within the Interior Ministry, providing an eye-opening example for Russians of the scale of alleged graft within the government system.

The Rosbalt news service reported that another 300 million euros ($337 million) was found in Swiss bank accounts belonging to Zakharchenko’s father, citing a person in law enforcement that it didn’t identify. Zakharchenko is charged with abuse of office and the probe involves only the seized 8.5 billion rubles “at the moment,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement Wednesday. His lawyer, Yuri Novikov, said he knows nothing about any Swiss accounts, according to the RIA Novosti news service.