In Vladivostok, ten individuals were kept in custody on suspicion of taking part in and organizing a criminal group, according to the press service of the Investigative Committee for the Primorsky Territory. The statement specifies that the detention follows a coordinated investigation into a scheme aimed at leveraging state property through deceptive means connected to a local educational institution.
Investigators indicate that the organization was formed no later than 1996 when Gennady Lazarev allegedly created a criminal society with the objective of seizing Russian Federation assets under false pretenses. Reports from TASS identify Lazarev as a former rector of the Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service and as a member of the board of directors of JSC Vostochnaya Verf. The current case centers on Lazarev as a defendant accused of organizing an organized criminal community, with charges extending to the entire group’s activities from its inception through 2024.
According to the inquiry, the group carried out at least six grave crimes during that period. Among the actions attributed to the organization were the seizure of municipal or state property located on Derzhavin Street, Gogol Street, and Tenth Street in Vladivostok, as well as the misappropriation of more than 6 million rubles that had been earmarked by Vostochnaya Verf JSC to fulfill the state defense order. These incidents reflect a pattern of fraudulent activity intended to divert public resources and property away from official channels.
Thus far, the Investigative Committee has conducted ten searches at the residences of the suspects and is currently determining appropriate preventive measures for the detainees. The ongoing procedural steps aim to establish the full scope of the criminal network’s operations and to secure any remaining evidence linked to the alleged scheme.
In a related note, authorities in Moscow recently detained members of another organized crime group involved in extortion from the messaging platform Telegram by threatening to expose information about politicians unless payment was made. This development underscores the broader effort by law enforcement to dismantle criminal networks that exploit public offices or digital platforms to solicit illicit gains.