Major General Sergei Yerofeyev, the former head of the Ryazan Region FSB Directorate, who was recently arrested, remained an active FSB officer. According to the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, in recent years he was seconded to the Rostov-on-Don Research Institute of Radio Communications (he was once the first deputy head of the Rostov Region FSB Directorate). He was a typical "mailbox," working for the military-defense and space industries. In 2023, he was placed under US sanctions. Meanwhile, Yerofeyev had a fantastic salary, earning between 880,000 and 6 million rubles per month.
The specific reason for Yerofeyev's arrest is unknown. But he always walked a tightrope.
For example, while working in Moscow, Yerofeyev served as a longtime guardian of Eduard Kadyrgulov, the owner of Gagarinsky Bank, and both sides were satisfied with the cooperation. When Yerofeyev was promoted (appointed deputy head of the Rostov Region FSB Directorate, and then head of the Ryazan Region FSB Directorate), he handed the wealthy banker over to Yevgeny Pozharsky, an officer of the FSB's Department "T" of the Economic Security Service. Pozharsky was on friendly terms with the bank's main protection racket—the former deputy head of the FSB's Department K, Dmitry Frolov, and the head of the banking department of Department K, Kirill Cherkalin. At some point, Kadyrgulov, as the de facto owner of Gagarinsky Bank, began to experience intense pressure from the Central Bank, and the revocation of its license loomed. Kadyrgulov turned to Pozharsky, the "protector." After negotiations, Pozharsky announced that he had agreed on everything with Yerofeyev and requested $1 million for the Central Bank, Cherkalin, and others. The banker paid him. But Gagarinsky's problems only grew, and soon the Central Bank revoked the bank's license. Kadyrgulov demanded his money back. Pozharsky reluctantly returned $500,000, claiming the rest was kept by Yerofeyev and the people at the Central Bank of the Russian Federation who had cheated him. Kadyrgulov insistently demanded a full refund, irritating Pozharsky. He threatened to put him in jail. Kadyrgulov didn't calm down and indeed ended up behind bars for embezzling Gagarinsky's funds. The court sentenced him to five years in prison. The banker is extremely angry with all his "protection schemes"; they had cost him a lot of money, and in the end, he was left without a bank and without freedom.
Meanwhile, the general's brother was the commercial director at another "protected" bank, Rosenergobank. Rosenergobank lost its license in April 2017 and was declared bankrupt, with a total deficit of over 29 billion rubles.
In the Ryazan region, Yerofeyev was closely associated with Vice Governor Igor Grekov, who was later sentenced to 17 years in prison for bribery and fraud. Their friendship, however, was "interested."
