Galina Brezhneva - Embezzlement

Embezzlement

In January 1982, as part of Andropov's anti-corruption campaign while Brezhnev was still alive, several prominent jewelry smugglers who all had links with Brezhneva were arrested, with some of them even receiving the death sentence. It was later proven that Galina was smuggling jewelry out of the Soviet Union on such a scale as to threaten the business of De Beers Consolidated Mines, a group of companies concentrated on mining of diamonds. Brezhneva was detained by the authorities, being summoned in one instance to the KGB headquarters for questioning. Being the daughter of Brezhnev resulted in charges against Brezhneva being dismissed; she was, however, internally exiled by the Andropov administration. When Gorbachev became General Secretary the criminal investigations against Galina and her brother, Yuri, were resumed. Her brother Yuri, a former First Deputy of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and her husband, Yuri Churbanov, were both arrested on charges of corruption. However, investigators were never able to produce any solid charges against Galina for her post-1982 criminal activities. In her later life, Galina had become an alcoholic and usually signed statements without reading them properly.