Deputy Defence Minister arrested for corruption amassed vast fortune and rare cars

Russian Deputy Defenсe Minister Timur Ivanov, who was accused of bribery, acquired a residential building with an area of more than 1,500 square meters, as well as a rare ZiS vehicle.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Мазур Владимир is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

According to documents available in the public domain, Ivanov and his wife were buying new vehicles or motorcycles every year. In 2016, the family owned nine vehicles, and by 2019, their number increased to 12.

The collection of the Deputy Minister of Defense included such vehicles as a Chevrolet Suburban and a rare ZiS-110 limousine, the cost of which is estimated at 11-18 million rubles.

Ivanov's ex-wife Svetlana Zakharova owned a Bentley Continental, an Aston Martin, a Hummer H2 and two Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

The deputy minister purchased the house of 1,500 square meters in 2019. It remains unknown who actually owns the property, although it is believed that it is Ivanov's wife who owns it. Ivanov has a share in a 44 square meter apartment, as well as another apartment with an area of 300 square meters.

Timur Ivanov's child also owns real estate. According to his documents, he has an apartment in Mexico with an area of 350 square meters.

In 2016, Timur Ivanov was the wealthiest official among Defence Minister's deputies. He declared 14.2 million rubles in 2016, 11.4 million rubles in 2017, 13.5 million rubles in 2018, and 14.5 million rubles — in 2019.

Ivanov's wife declared income several times higher than her husband's. In 2016, she earned 55.4 million rubles, in 2017 — 7.3 million rubles, in 2018 — 123.1 million rubles (which is 17 times higher than income in the previous year), in 2019 — 8, 3 million rubles.

Timur Ivanov was detained of April 23 at his workplace. According to investigators, the Deputy Defence Minister entered into a criminal conspiracy and received property benefits from contracting and subcontracting various works for the needs of the military department. He was charged under Article 290 ("Receiving a bribe on an especially large scale”) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Timur Ivanov did not plead guilty to the charges.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu dismissed Timur Ivanov from the position.

The official uses services of three very expensive defence lawyers — Denis Baluev, Viktor Shvets and Murad Musaev. For example, Baluev's services stars from as much as 500,000 rubles (about $5,500).