A man who evaded law for 17 years was recorded by CCTV in Moscow, according to the press service of the Southern Urals transport police. The case highlights a long-running investigation into a scheme that exploited railway assets and private security connections to fuel a cycle of theft and fraudulent activity.
Investigators say the suspect, operating between 2003 and 2006, stole material assets from railway enterprises in Chelyabinsk and Kurgan. By colluding with private security firm employees and railway workers, he pilfered car and locomotive spare parts from warehouses and moved them to buyers through a façade of a private entrepreneur. During the period in question, the individual allegedly signed a supply contract with a state-owned enterprise and received more than a million rubles as an advance. The funds, however, were diverted to personal use, resulting in property losses surpassing 7 million rubles.
In August of this year, a 55-year-old man with no prior criminal record was detained in Moscow. He confessed to the property crimes and described how he spent the ensuing 17 years, offering investigators a detailed account of his movements and activities since the mid-2000s.
In 2006 the man severed ties with his wife and teenage children, left his hometown of Chelyabinsk, and wandered across Russia. He lived for a period in Nizhny Novgorod and eventually settled in Moscow, where he repeatedly changed his place of residence and took on various construction-related jobs. A key part of his imposter strategy involved purchasing a scanned copy of another person’s passport from underground venues, replacing the photo, and using it to produce required documents when needed.
The detainee has been placed in pre-trial detention and now faces charges for theft by an organized group of particularly large-scale theft, as well as two counts under the article concerning theft committed by a group of persons through prior conspiracy. The case underscores the challenges of preventing organized manipulation of repair supply chains and the reuse of forged identities in large-scale fraud schemes.
A pimp and robber who had been sought for 12 years was recently located in Sochi, signaling continued efforts to resolve interlinked cases that span multiple regions and criminal networks.