Moscow, Russian Federation, Russian Federation

Russian Federation · Moscow, Russian Federation · 2011 (location generalized to protect survivors)

FSB officials said the activities of the criminal group were stopped in an joint operation with Russian police and the Prosecutor General's Office, Moscow prosecutors, law-enforcement bodies of Moscow's southeastern district, and their colleagues from Italy and Finland, and the Interpol's General Secretariat. The investigation was handed over to military prosecutors, because Lt-Col Dmitry Strykanov was among the arrested persons. According to investigators, dummy firms were set up in a number of Russian towns, which concluded fictitious contracts with Russian citizens seeking jobs abroad, in order to illegally come in possession of their foreign travel passports. These firms then drew up documents for valid visas through tourist firms with photos of other persons. Photos were replaced in an illegal laboratory. No victim aftercare was reported. The Moscow District Military Court earlier found 11 of the 13 suspects in this case guilty. The court found charges of organizing a criminal group, brought against Lt. Col Strykanov unproven, and named Igor Slesarev and Avi Yanai as the group's leaders. Yanai and Slesarev got the longest terms, respectively 18 and 19 years, in a high security prison, plus a fine amounting to 600,000 rubles each. Of the eleven convicted criminals, two got suspended sentences, including Anna Stoyan who was granted a five year period of probation, and Igor Vlad, who got a five-year suspended sentence. Some of the victims' lawsuits have been granted and they will get more than 2 million rubles in damages, in all. Yanai had been convicted twice in Haifa, Israel. Israeli police are investigating several cases in relation to Yanai, including on counts of trafficking in humans and fraud, the Prosecutor General's Office said.