Police officers in a row: Interior Ministry generals received 10-12 years for large bribes

Former high-ranking employees of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region received from 10 to 12 years in a high-security penal colony in a corruption case. According to investigators, generals Ivan Abakumov, Sergey Umnov and Alexey Semenov took bribes from entrepreneurs who provided paid car registration services. The security forces withdrew the money through the "Fund for Assistance to Police Department Programs." The investigation estimated that over six years, the defendants had received 65 million rubles in this way. Experts called the punishment harsh and expected. How the illicit enrichment scheme worked and what the generals spent the money on is in the Izvestia article.

What sentence did the Interior Ministry generals receive in the bribery case

On August 27, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow sentenced former high-ranking St. Petersburg police officers in a case of bribery and abuse of office. In the dock are former Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, former head of the Interior Ministry for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, Lieutenant General Sergei Umnov, his deputy for the rear, Major General Ivan Abakumov, head of the UGIBDD, Major General Alexei Semenov and former head of the legal department of the same department, police Lieutenant Colonel Elena Kopyev.

The court found four defendants guilty of 11 episodes of bribes totaling 65 million rubles. Umnov was sentenced to 12 years in a high—security penal colony, Abakumov to 11.5 years, and Semenov to 10.5. Kopyeva received 10 years in a general regime penal colony. The defendants were also fined from 10 to 35 million rubles. All of them were stripped of their state awards and titles.

Property worth more than 64 million rubles was also confiscated from the defendants, including Rolex and Balmain watches, SS uniforms, in particular, the Luftwaffe, as well as collector's weapons of 1848 and 1935.

In addition to the police, four businessmen who rented premises for the branches of the Interdistrict Registration and Examination Department of the traffic police appeared before the court. As the investigation found, they had been transferring millions of rubles to the "Fund for Assistance to Police Department Programs" for years. Entrepreneurs Vladimir Platonov, Andrey Tsarnets, Oleg Ivanov and Nadezhda Smirnova received from 8 to 8.5 years in prison. Several defendants were taken into custody in the courtroom.

Neither the former heads of the St. Petersburg Ministry of Internal Affairs, nor the businessmen accused of giving bribes admitted guilt.

—Faith and hope are the last to die,— Abakumov shouted during the meeting.

How the illicit enrichment scheme worked

Umnov, Abakumov, Semenov and Kopyeva were detained in July 2022 as part of a large-scale search operation in St. Petersburg and several other cities. The former heads of the St. Petersburg police were accused of 11 counts of accepting bribes in the form of donations for the NGO "Fund for Assistance to Police Department Programs." According to investigators, the fund, formally created to help police officers and veterans of the Interior Ministry, was actually used by the defendants for personal enrichment.

The investigation considers Sergey Umnov to be the organizer of the scheme. According to investigators, back in October 2013, he created an "organized group" that collected bribes from the heads of commercial departments of the UGIBDD for registration and accounting of vehicles.

These companies rented premises in the registration and examination departments of the St. Petersburg UGIBDD. There, they provided paid services to car owners, for example, they checked car license plates before registering a vehicle. There were 11 such branches in total, all of them were affiliated with the leadership of the St. Petersburg central committee.

For the extension of contracts with these commercial branches, the defendants received bribes under the guise of donations to the accounts of the GUVD Program Assistance Fund, the investigation believes. In total, the defendants illegally received 65 million rubles from 2013 to 2019.

As stated in the case file, the money was spent on the purchase of premium class cars, including Toyota Land Cruiser 200 purchased by the fund for 5.2 million rubles and Toyota Camry for 2.2 million rubles. The money was also spent on paying for subscriptions to fitness centers for the heads of the headquarters, repairing and equipping their offices and recreation rooms. The Toyota Land Cruiser car was formally registered to the foundation, but during the search it was found in Abakumov's garage. The investigation estimated that the cost of the car was approximately equal to the annual salary of the general.

In addition, the "donations" were used to organize banquets for various corporate holidays.

What the defendants stated in court

During the debate in July 2025, Sergei Umnov told the court that at the time of most of the transactions that the investigation considers corrupt, he had already been transferred to Moscow. According to him, not all companies that transferred money to the fund had contracts with the Interior Ministry.

— I am not involved in the expenses that I am accused of. All the money (of the fund. — Ed.) went on holidays and repairs, — said the Lieutenant General. — Or for food and souvenirs for guests, because very little money is officially allocated for this. I cannot be responsible for all employees of all departments.

The ex-head of the central committee tried to explain his criminal prosecution by the Old Believer faith, "which has long been persecuted," and even by a collection of award-winning weapons, which his unknown opponents are also allegedly hunting for.

During the interrogation, Umnov's deputy in the rear, Ivan Abakumov, responding to a question from a lawyer, stated that the essence of the accusation was unclear to him, it, in his words, "does not correspond to the actions that took place."

"I had nothing to do with it, I plead not guilty," he said.

Abakumov also told the court about his work history, starting at the age of 18, how he worked his way up from an ordinary operative and a junior inspector of the criminal investigation department to deputy head of the St. Petersburg central committee.

Abakumov's lawyer, Egor Zolkin, told Izvestia that he considered the terms requested by the prosecutor to be "unreasonable, excessively harsh, unfair and unjustified."

— My client is 61 years old, and his health is not getting better in prison. And asking him to serve 11 years is the same as asking for life imprisonment," he said.

The sentence of 10 to 12 years in a penal colony imposed on the generals of the St. Petersburg Ministry of Internal Affairs can be called harsh, says Yuri Levin, a lawyer at branch No. 1 of the Moscow Regional Bar Association. But such a court decision, according to him, was expected.

— Under the article on large-scale bribery, the penalty is from 8 to 15 years in prison. Umnov and his lawyers obviously intend to appeal the verdict," the expert argues.

The trend of strict sentences on corruption charges is now continuing, Veronika Polyakova, managing partner of the Business legal group Bar Association, noted in an interview with Izvestia.

"When sentencing, the court takes into account the defendant's state of health, his position on the charge, as well as a combination of mitigating and aggravating circumstances," she recalled.

The defense of the defendants can file an appeal with a request for acquittal or commutation of punishment, but such appeals usually fail when it comes to corruption crimes committed by high-ranking officials, the lawyer said.