OREANDA-NEWS The former head of the department of the presidential administration of Russia to ensure the constitutional rights of citizens, FSB colonel Mikhail Gorbatov was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. "Kommersant" reports.

Gorbatov was found guilty of a particularly large-scale fraud. In addition to the prison term, the colonel was awarded a fine of 250 thousand rubles. He is forbidden to hold posts in the state and municipal service for two years.

As the investigation established, at the time of the crime, Gorbatov held the position of senior security officer of the 11th Department of the "K" Department, dealing with the detection of crimes in the credit and financial sphere. He and two other defendants in the case extorted money from pawnshop owners, scaring them with alleged checks by the FSB. Thus, the fraudsters received 100 thousand dollars, as well as valuables worth more than a million dollars.

After eight months in the SIZO, Gorbatov's accomplices confessed to the crime and made a deal with the investigation. He also provided new testimony, which allowed to reveal the criminal activities of high-ranking employees of the “K” department of the FSB, including the head of the banking department Kirill Cherkalin and colonels Andrey Vasilyev and Dmitry Frolov.

Cherkalin, Vasilyev and Frolov were detained at the end of April. The former head of the banking department is accused of embezzling 490 million rubles. As a result of searches in the apartments of the colonels, they found cash in rubles, dollars and euros - only 12 billion rubles.

Cherkalin is also suspected of receiving a bribe in the amount of 850 thousand dollars for the protection of one of the commercial firms in the period from 2013 to 2015.