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Sergey FanaginLeader of the Kingisepp criminal gang.
Country:
 Russia |
Content:
- Biography of Sergey Finagin
- Criminal Activities
- Arrest and Investigation
- Accusations Against Igor Izmaystev
- Personal Information
Biography of Sergey Finagin
Sergey Viktorovich Finagin, also known as Finn in the criminal world, is believed to have been the leader of the so-called Kingisepp organized crime group. He was born in an unknown date and location, and his early life remains a mystery.
Criminal Activities
According to law enforcement agencies and media reports, Finagin was involved in the organization of several contract killings, including those carried out for the benefit of former senator Igor Izmaystev from Bashkortostan. The Kingisepp criminal group, which emerged in Moscow in 1992, mainly consisted of individuals from Kingisepp, a town in the Leningrad Oblast. The group was believed to include former submarine officer Alexander Pumané, who was arrested in September 2004 for his suspected involvement in a terrorist attack plot in Moscow.
Under Finagin's leadership, the Kingisepp group committed a series of contract killings. They allegedly murdered the production director of the Novo-Ufimsky Oil Refinery, Salavat Gainanov, in January 1994. In December 1999, they killed a employee of the Ronex company named Oleg Bulatov, and in April 2001, they targeted Valery Speransky, the former chief accountant of the Bashkir Petrochemical Company. In November 2001, they kidnapped and killed the chief accountant of LLC "Plaza Group," Lyudmila Krasnoger. Another murder was committed in December 2002, when the chairman of the board of VMS-Octan company, Vasily Khitarihvili, was shot dead. According to the investigation, members of Finagin's gang received monthly salaries ranging from $400 to $2500, as well as bonuses of $10,000 for each murder. The group had an impressive arsenal, including handguns, rifles, grenades, and explosives such as plastids and dynamite.
A conflict between Finagin and Pumané arose in the summer of 2004, according to Alexander Ivanov, a member of the group who was arrested in 2006 and agreed to cooperate with the investigation. Finagin began giving his subordinates excessively risky tasks that could easily lead to their arrest. When they refused, Finagin threatened Pumané and Ivanov with retaliation. As a result, they decided to leave the group without completing their last assignment - the murder of former financial director of Slavneft company, Yuri Bushev.
Arrest and Investigation
In November 2006, the Moscow City Court accepted the criminal case against the Kingisepp group, and most of its members were arrested in 2005-2006. Media reports claimed that Finagin's brother, Mikhail Finagin, was the head of the security service at "Korus-Holding," a company owned by Senator Igor Izmaystev from Bashkortostan. It was speculated that the group's murders could have been beneficial to Izmaystev. However, the senator denied these allegations, calling them "fabricated" by the media. The following month, the Federation Council terminated Izmaystev's mandate prematurely, based on his personal request.
On December 18, 2006, Finagin was arrested in St. Petersburg during an operation carried out by FSB officers, the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and local police officers. He had managed to evade the investigators for a longer period compared to his subordinates. According to media reports, Finagin had gone into hiding in September 2004, following Pumané's death. The authorities were able to locate and apprehend him after months of extensive investigative work. A detailed description and photograph of Finagin were also posted on the FSB website. Although he initially tried to prove the officers wrong, Finagin did not resist arrest. On December 19, he was transported to Moscow and placed in pretrial detention in Lefortovo detention center.
Finagin's case was separated from the overall Kingisepp group investigation, as he was apprehended later than his subordinates. Moreover, it was through Finagin that the investigators hoped to uncover the alleged masterminds behind the murders – well-known entrepreneurs and former Federation Council member Izmaystev.
Accusations Against Igor Izmaystev
On January 16, 2007, Izmaystev was detained at the airport in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and subsequently escorted to Moscow. The former senator was suspected of organizing the murder of Galina Perepelkina, a notary in Moscow and the wife of Izmaystev's former business partner, Yuri Bushev. Law enforcement agencies believed that members of Finagin's gang were also involved in this murder. On March 12, 2007, Finagin and another alleged organizer of the Kingisepp criminal group, Imran Ilyasov, were interrogated in relation to the case of former officers of the Federal Drug Control Service in St. Petersburg, Yuri Vasilyev and Denis Pinchuk, who were accused of involvement with the gang. During the questioning, Finagin implicated Izmaystev as the mastermind behind one of the murders committed by the group, specifically the killing of Oleg Bulatov in December 1999, for which Izmaystev allegedly paid "no less than $100,000." Furthermore, Finagin claimed that Izmaystev provided money to the killers for purchasing weapons and renting apartments.
Personal Information
Not much is known about Finagin's personal life, but according to information from the FSB available on the internet, he is a former boxer skilled in various types of firearms and hand-to-hand combat techniques. He is described as highly aggressive and dangerous to those around him, capable of committing unmotivated acts of violence.
