His lawyer Andrei Grivtsov confirmed to Vedomosti fact of Maksimenko’s death. “Yes, indeed, Maksimenko’s wife told me this. I don’t know the details and how exactly he died,” Grivtsov noted.
Vedomosti’s interlocutor added that Maksimenko had been suffering for a long time from old injuries and wounds received in service during the Chechen war. According to preliminary information, he could have committed suicide, the source added.
HRC member Eva Merkacheva wrote in her Telegram channel that she visited Maksimenko in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center while working in the Moscow PSC. According to her, he expressed fears that he might be poisoned.
“He wrote a power of attorney for me to review his medical documents. And I studied his medical record carefully. Suffered concussion and injuries. But there was nothing critical. And he also said that under no circumstances would he commit suicide,” Merkacheva wrote.
Maksimenko was convicted in March 2020. together with the former head of the capital’s central administration TFR Alexander Drymanov and the ex-head of the same department for the Central District, Alexei Kramarenko, for bribery.
By the court’s verdict, Drymanov was sentenced to 12 years in a maximum security colony with a fine of 196 million rubles, Maksimenko, in combination with his previous sentence – also for bribery – 14 years in a maximum security colony with a fine of 250 million rubles, Kramarenko received 10 years colony with a fine of 195 million rubles.
Moscow City Court found former employees of the Investigative Committee guilty of receiving a particularly large bribe (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code).
According to the plot of the criminal case, the total amount of the bribe was $1 million. Drymanov, Kramarenko and Maksimenko received it through businessman Dmitry Smychkovsky for taking measures to release from the pre-trial detention center the accomplice of thief in law Zakhar Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy) – Andrey Kochuykov (Italyanets).
The latter was detained in 2015 after a shootout near the Elements restaurant on Rochdelskaya Street in Moscow. It was assumed that high-ranking investigators would reclassify the charge against him to a more lenient one.
There was another person involved in the criminal case – Drymanov’s assistant Denis Nikandrov. He entered into a pre-trial agreement with the investigation and gave incriminating evidence against his former boss. From his testimony, it became known about another episode of bribery: Nikandrov gave Drymanov about 10,000 euros for promotion and patronage in the service.
The convicts did not admit guilt either at the investigation stage or during the trial on the merits.
For Maksimenko this was the second sentence. He received the first one in 2018, also for accepting bribes, including $500,000 from businessman Oleg Sheykhametov through intermediaries for assistance in the investigation into the Kochuykov case.
On November 15, it became known that Kramarenko was released from a correctional colony, having entered into a contract with Ministry of Defense about service in a special military operation.