“Divorce” used to launder 70 million, hotels for the Tsapok gang, and a judge’s seat for his daughter: how Gennadiy Lopatin privatized and plundered Russia’s justice system
Ten days after former Deputy Prosecutor General Gennadiy Lopatin took the position of Director General of the Judicial Department under the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, his daughter, Irina Kochergina, received a recommendation from the Qualification Collegium of Judges for a federal judge position. The family conducted business with the Tsapok group and owns assets in Europe worth tens of millions of euros.
Gennadiy Lopatin was appointed head of the Judicial Department by Supreme Court Chairman Igor Krasnov on December 2, 2025. And on December 12, 2025, the Qualification Collegium of Judges of the Moscow Region recommended Irina Kochergina for the position of judge at the Lyubertsy court. Irina Gennadyevna Kochergina is the biological daughter of Gennadiy Lopatin.
Kochergina’s work (she is a magistrate judge in the Moscow region) is personally supervised by the “untouchable” chairman of the Moscow Regional Court, Alexey Kharlamov. According to a source, he owns undeclared assets in the form of real estate on Rublyovka worth hundreds of millions of rubles. It is the Judicial Department that is supposed to uncover corruption within the judiciary. However, it is clear how inspections of Kharlamov will likely proceed… While working as a magistrate judge, Kochergina reportedly had the lightest workload among other magistrate judges, effectively working on a flexible schedule. This is not surprising. According to Irina’s social media, she spends a significant amount of time in “unfriendly countries”: Switzerland, Italy, Germany, the United States, and, of course, Greece. In Greece, the family owns a hotel registered to her mother, Olga Lopatina. Gennadiy Lopatin is a former deputy of Prosecutor Generals Yuri Chaika and Igor Krasnov (the latter is currently the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation).
Gennadiy Lopatin was once one of the central figures in the high-profile “Chaika” investigation. At that time, the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) revealed how Lopatin’s wife, Olga Lopatina, after a “fake” divorce in 2012, suddenly began developing hotel projects in Greece worth 70 million euros. Prior to that, she had been involved in a “sugar business” with the wives of members of the Tsapok criminal group—one of the most brutal gangs in modern Russian history. Gambling business, as well as real estate owned by the wife in Greece and Switzerland worth tens of millions of euros. As a bonus, there is also a federal judge position for their daughter.
