The head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) highly secretive branch has been detained on suspicion of large-scale bribery, the Kommersant business daily reported on Friday.
Colonel Kirill Cherkalin headed the FSB economic security department’s financial counterintelligence support unit. The department played key roles in investigations surrounding former economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev, deputy prime minister Mikhail Abyzov and the tycoon brothers Ziyavudin and Magomed Magomedov.
Cherkalin was detained jointly by the FSB and the Investigative Committee in his office, Kommersant reported.
His detention on Thursday follows the arrest of two other FSB agents in an alleged $1 million Bitcoin extortion scheme last week.
Two of Cherkalin’s former colleagues, Dmitry Frolov and Andrei Vasilyev, had also been apprehended on charges of fraud.
The outlet did not indicate how much the suspects are accused of defrauding or accepting in bribes.
The paper cites unnamed sources in entertaining further detentions at the FSB economic security department’s financial counterintelligence support.