St. Petersburg businessman with rumored mob ties is found dead in car riddled with bullets

On September 17, about 15 minutes north of St. Petersburg, police found a Mercedes on the side of the highway riddled with six bullets apparently fired from an automatic weapon. Inside, officers discovered the body of Bardi Shengeliya, a businessman with reported ties to Russia’s criminal underworld who’s served multiple times as a key witness against fellow conspirators and corrupt cops. It was Shengeliya’s testimony that put away Tambov mafia boss Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin) for 15 years.

Most recently, Shengeliya testified that former Colonel Mikhail Maksimenko, who led the Federal Investigative Committee’s Internal Security Directorate, received a $50,000 bribe to launch a criminal case against fellow investigators who supposedly stole Shengeliya’s wristwatch. Maksimenko maintains his innocence.

In April 2018, Mikhail Maksimenko was sentenced to 13 years in prison for accepting a $500,000 bribe to try to free a criminal working for the mobster Zakhariy Kalashov (known as “Young Shakro”). Maksimenko was also stripped of his rank as colonel and banned for life from working again for a state agency. Three other law enforcement officers testified against him, including one of his former subordinates. Maksimenko maintains his innocence.

The court ruled that Maksimenko received the money to help free Andrey Kochuikov (known as “The Italian”), who took part in a deadly shootout at a Moscow cafe in 2015, where two of Kalashov’s men died. Kalashov was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for extortion.