Foreign brokers, neobanks, payment services and EMIs with Russian-speaking clients receive requests from Russian authorities on a routine basis — from the police (MVD), the Investigative Committee, courts, bailiffs (FSSP) and notaries handling inheritance cases. Some carry a genuine legal deadline. Others are fraud attempts by people posing as investigators to extract client data. Answering the wrong way in either direction is costly: disclosing to a fraudster leaks client data, and ignoring a lawful order misses a deadline with real consequences. From outside Russia, a compliance team has no reliable way to tell a real Russian law enforcement request from a fake one — and this is exactly the gap we close from Moscow.
What we do
- Formal review of the request: outgoing reference number and date, case or pre-investigation file number, issuing authority, the signatory’s position, rank and authority to sign, seal and letterhead, and consistency with the legal grounds cited.
- Confirmation through official channels: we call the duty unit or registry office of the authority using the telephone number published on its official website — never the number printed on the letter — and confirm that the officer serves there and that a document with that reference number was registered. This is the standard way to check a request from Russian police to a bank or broker without relying on the letter itself.
- FSSP bailiff request handling: a foreign broker asked to freeze or disclose client assets under an FSSP enforcement request needs the underlying writ of execution verified before acting — we confirm the enforcement proceeding exists and matches the demand.
- Russian court order review: where disclosure is requested under a court order rather than an investigator’s own authority, we check that the order was actually issued by the court named, covers the data requested, and has not been superseded or appealed.
- Scope of disclosure assessment: what you are obliged to provide, what requires a court order, and how personal data may lawfully be transferred.
- Verification Memo in English for every request — confirmed / not confirmed / doubtful — with our recommendation on disclosure.
- Support with the response: drafting the reply, requests for clarification and, where necessary, challenging an unlawful demand.
How it works
- You forward the request to our secure mailbox under NDA — the scanned letter and e-mail headers are enough.
- Within 1–2 business days we complete the formal review and official-channel confirmation and send you the Verification Memo.
- If the case requires it, we file a written or advocate’s enquiry and update the memo when the authority responds.
- You respond to the authority — with our draft reply and a clear disclosure scope, or reject a request that has not been confirmed.
What we don’t do
We do not check individuals against closed law enforcement databases and do not obtain information through unofficial channels. Such methods are unlawful in Russia, would make the result unusable in any dispute, and would expose both your company and ours. Every verification relies solely on official enquiries and open sources, and every step is documented in the memo.
Who this is for
- Compliance and law enforcement response teams at brokers, neobanks, payment services and EMIs with clients in Russia and the CIS;
- Legal departments that receive Russian-language requests and have no counsel on the ground;
- Firms that have already faced a fraudulent “investigator” request or an unclear bulk demand for client data.
If your business is a crypto exchange, see our dedicated page on verifying law enforcement requests to crypto exchanges. For notices from Roskomnadzor rather than law enforcement, see Roskomnadzor notices and 236-FZ compliance.
FAQ
How do I know if a request from Russian police to our bank or platform is genuine?
Genuine requests carry a verifiable reference number, a named issuing authority and a signatory who can be confirmed through the authority’s official switchboard. We run that confirmation for you rather than relying on the letter’s own contact details.
We received an FSSP bailiff request asking us to freeze an account. Must we comply immediately?
Only once the underlying enforcement proceeding and writ of execution are verified and the demand matches its scope. We check this before you act.
Does a Russian court order automatically override our standard data protection obligations?
Not automatically — the order needs to be genuine, properly issued, and to actually cover the data requested. We verify all three before advising on disclosure.
Can you confirm a request without alerting the authority that we are checking it?
Confirmation via the duty unit or registry is a routine query; it does not reveal your internal decision or delay a genuine investigation.
In what language do we receive the results?
All memos and correspondence with your team are in English; communication with Russian authorities is in Russian.
Get started
Pricing starts from USD 450 per case. Send a short description of your request flow to law@vfs.consulting or use the contact form. We reply within one business day with our standard mutual NDA and a proposal matched to your expected monthly volume.
