Former FSB officers Sergey Bespalov and Evgeniy Sviridov are accused of operating a $1 million protection-for-payment scheme for banker Ilya Kligman through intermediaries Igor Yurasov, Bashir Kushtov, and Andrey Fetisov.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has reclassified the case against the ex-intelligence officers from attempted fraud to accepting an especially large bribe.
Investigators previously alleged that in 2019 the two men tried to obtain $1 million from Kligman, who was in Germany, in exchange for shutting down the criminal case against him. Authorities have now added another similar episode covering 2014–2016, when the defendants were still serving officers and the same $1 million amount was allegedly involved.
Meanwhile, the Moscow City Court softened Bespalov’s pretrial restrictions, moving him from detention to house arrest in light of his state awards and five dependent children. Sviridov remains in custody.
The criminal case against Bespalov, a major in the FSB’s 9th Directorate, and Sviridov, a former economic security operative in the Moscow regional FSB, was launched on May 16, 2022, initially on attempted large-scale fraud charges. The case stemmed from a complaint by Sergey Gerasimenko, acting for banker Ilya Kligman, who is accused of embezzling 7 billion rubles from Agrosoyuz Bank and had fled abroad.
According to investigators, in autumn 2019 Yurasov, a former international fund executive, and Kushtov, ex-president of the Ryss hockey club, approached Gerasimenko claiming they could ensure Kligman would avoid prosecution for $1 million. They allegedly said part of the payment would go to law-enforcement officials, with Bespalov and Sviridov managing the process.
In December 2019, Gerasimenko transferred an initial $500,000. However, the case against Kligman was not dropped; in April 2021 investigators added charges of organizing a criminal group and orchestrating the bank embezzlement. After that, Gerasimenko contacted authorities.
Yurasov, Kushtov, and intermediary Andrey Fetisov were the first to stand trial. All pleaded guilty, cooperated with investigators, and received three-and-a-half-year suspended sentences in July for attempted large-scale fraud.
The case against Bespalov and Sviridov was separated into independent proceedings in June 2022 and moved to the central Investigative Committee. Sviridov was arrested on June 8 and Bespalov on October 10. Although initially charged with large-scale fraud, on May 11, 2023 the accusations were upgraded to accepting an especially large bribe, now covering two episodes.
In the second episode, dating back to 2014, investigators say the officers learned about a criminal case involving an unnamed businessman abroad and offered protection from prosecution, assistance with the Central Bank, and broader law-enforcement support for $1 million. Between January 2014 and December 2016, they allegedly received the money in installments but did not deliver on their promises.
Investigators also claim that a substantial portion of the funds was later funneled by Sviridov through controlled companies to foreign firms — Megatrade & Investment Corporation in the UAE and Hybridge Alliance Limited in the UK — registered to close relatives.