The entrepreneur now faces a sentence of up to life imprisonment.
Law enforcement officials have detained the president of the non-profit partnership "International Association of Private Detectives," Andrei Matushkin. This was reported by RBC, citing three sources in law enforcement agencies.
Matushkin was gathering information constituting state secrets and passing it abroad, as well as cooperating with foreign intelligence, one of the publication's sources said. It is specified that he may have maintained contacts with representatives of the Baltic states.
The detective was arrested back in September for two months. He is currently in one of the detention centers in St. Petersburg.
Representatives of the detective community are aware of the detention of the association's head. Private detective Mikhail Loktionov reported that two other detectives were also involved in the case alongside Matushkin: one of them was later released. "Anyone who pays contributions could join Matushkin's association, and it does not necessarily have to be a private detective. Money in the form of contributions has always been the main link to become a member of this association," Loktionov claims. Among the members of the association were private detectives from the USA, the UK, and other Western countries, he says.
The members of the association are not listed on the MOD website, and RBC did not receive a response to inquiries there.
According to Spark, the non-profit partnership "International Association of Detectives" (the legal entity of the association) was registered in 2012 in St. Petersburg, while the association's website states that it has been operating since 2009. Matushkin is listed as its leader, who has been in bankruptcy proceedings since 2021 due to a lawsuit from Sberbank related to unpaid mortgage loans. According to the information on the association's website, its members are engaged in the search for stolen vehicles, locating missing and hiding people, covert surveillance, polygraph tests, infidelity checks, and more.
Article 275 of the Criminal Code provides for punishment of up to life imprisonment. Such criminal cases are traditionally considered by courts in a closed manner — with the press and public excluded, as the investigation materials usually contain information constituting state secrets.
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