Gold toilet found in Russian police bribery investigation
Russian investigators found a gold-plated toilet and other luxury and rare items during a raid on a Moscow mansion, while hunting down a gang of corrupt policemen.
The website of the Russian Investigative Committee (SK) published a video clip showing the huge palace from the inside, decorated with luxurious designs and inscriptions, and it was one of other properties that were raided as part of the investigations to pursue corrupt policemen.
The Russian authorities arrested the head of the traffic police in the southern Stavropol region, Alexei Safonov, along with six other defendants.
The accusations indicate that the traffic police received financial bribes to issue false permits to companies.
These forged permits allowed company drivers to pass through police checkpoints and transport unauthorized shipments of grain and construction materials.
The accused have not yet commented on the charges against them.
Police forces in the Russian North Caucasus regions participated in a large-scale anti-corruption operation.
The investigative committee says it conducted about 80 searches, including traffic police offices, and confiscated large amounts of cash, as well as luxury cars, according to the BBC.
The commission, a Russian government body modeled on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, says the gang headed by Safonov took bribes for years worth more than 19 million Russian rubles ($255,000).
Safonov could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.
His predecessor, Alexander Arzhanukhin, a former traffic police chief, was among those arrested.
Alexander Kenstein, a lawmaker from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, said more than 35 traffic police officers in the area had been arrested.
"Basically, (this formation) was a real kind of mafia operating in Stavropol, taking advantage of everything available: from black market license plates and shipping permits, to sand shipments," he wrote on the messaging app Telegram.
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