Three Whales Corruption Scandal

The Three Whales Corruption Scandal is a major corruption scandal in Russia involving several furniture companies and federal government bodies which has unfolded since 2000.

Three Whales (Tri kita) is a Moscow furniture shopping complex owned by Sergei Zuev. On August 13, 2000, Russian Customs inspectors suspended it and seized a furniture consignment supplied by the companies Bastion and Liga Mars, as they allegedly had smuggled 400 tons of furniture into Russia, while Zuev had not paid $5 million of Customs duty by falsifying the price and weight of imported goods. On October 20, 2000, Captain Pavel Zaitsev filed a criminal case against Liga Mars initiated on September 7 by the Moscow Oblast Directorate of Internal Affairs.

The Customs inspectors revealed that the Three Whales shop was controlled by Yevgeny Zaostrovtsev, a former chief of now FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev and the father of FSB General Yury Zaostrovtsev which at that time was the Head of the Economic Security Department and a Deputy Director of FSB.

In November 2000, the Prosecutor General's Office under Vladimir Ustinov halted the investigation and confiscated files related to the case. In December 2000 it charged Captain Pavel Zaitsev with abuse of office and claimed that he allegedly had conducted 12 searches without a prosecutor sanction and had illegally detained two suspects. On September 5, 2002, the Moscow City Court found Zaitsev not guilty on the charges. Later the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation cancelled this decision, and on November 3, 2003 Pavel Zaitsev was sentenced by a Moscow court for two years on probation.Olga Kudeshkina, a judge that took part in the trial, on December 1, 2003, said she was pressured to convict him, but refused to do so. In 2004, Kudeshkina lost her job.

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