Recent disclosures indicate that several employees from one of the FSB departments are under investigation in connection with a case involving the Merlion company. The individuals, who oversee certain operational aspects of law enforcement oversight, are accused of pressuring Merlion’s leadership to obtain a favorable outcome in exchange for resolving the probe, with alleged figures reaching as high as 5 billion rubles.
The detentions occurred last week and involved additional figures linked to the case, including Sergei Romodanovsky, a former head of the Investigative Committee for the North-West District, inspector Andrei Zheryutin, and Rustam Yusupov, who heads the Khoroshevsky investigation department. Authorities say these actions formed part of a broader effort to influence ongoing investigative work.
According to court records, the detained employees from the Investigative Committee face charges of organizing a criminal group and accepting bribes on a scale considered especially large. Reports also indicate that Konstantin Romodanovsky, the former head of the Federal Migration Service, alongside Sergei and Rustam Yusupov, were detained with operational support from the Federal Security Service during the course of the investigation.
As the case unfolds, inquiries extend to Alexei Nesnov, an investigator with the North-Western District Investigation Directorate of the Main Investigative Directorate of Moscow, who previously reported to Romodanovsky. Nesnov is tied to a probe concerning an alleged attempt against Merlion’s former CEO, Vyacheslav Simonenko. He has been placed on an international wanted list and subsequently arrested by the Basmanny Court.
Earlier in October 2020, three co-owners of Merlion—Oleg Karchev, Vladislav Mangutov, and Alexey Abramov—along with former Euroset vice president Boris Levin, were taken into custody on charges related to organizing an assassination attempt against Simonenko. The legal narrative surrounding Merlion has attracted ongoing attention from authorities and observers alike, highlighting a pattern of high-level involvement in allegations of pressure, fraud, and complicity across related entities.
Earlier public movements by security and law enforcement agencies have included actions against anti-corruption operatives accused of fraud totaling 15 million rubles. Separately, authorities announced the dismantling of a black caviar smuggling network operating within Russia, a case that underscored the broader scope of corruption-related enforcement across multiple sectors.