Law enforcement officers detained three men in Moscow on charges that they were searching for personal data of individuals for money. This became known on November 2, 2021.
It is reported that the detainees unwittingly helped the founder of FBK Alexei Navalny in the investigations (FBK is included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent and recognized as an extremist organization).
According to him, Peter Katkov, Alexander Zelentsov and Igor Zaitsev were detained.
Using the shadow Internet, they searched for customers and sold them personal data of various citizens: phone numbers, addresses, and so on. To do this, they used fake documents, including police identification cards.
The detainees were charged with forgery of documents and violation of the secrecy of telephone conversations. By the decision of the Basmanny Court, the suspects were sent under house arrest because of the investigation under Articles 327 and 138 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation[1].