MOSCOW, February 21 - RAPSI. Former employees of the Federal Service for State Registration, Land Registry and Cartography in the Moscow region accepted about $16,789 in bribes, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin reported on Tuesday.

According to investigators, an organized group of the department's employees operated from September 2009 and accepted from 10,000 rubles ($335) to 60,000 rubles ($2,000) for illegal services.

One group member was detained when he took a bribe in February 2010.

All bribes are broken down into four categories under a federal law adopted in May 2011. Small bribes of less than 25,000 rubles ($800) are punished with a fine up to 50 times the bribe amount. Medium-sized bribes of less than 150,000 rubles ($5,000) are punished with a fine up to 60 times the bribe sum. Large bribes from 150,000 ($5,000) to 1 million rubles ($35,600) are punished with a fine up to 90 times the bribe amount. Ultimately, large-scale bribes above 1 million rubles ($35,600) are punished with fines up to 100 times the bribe amount.

Criminals may be fined up to 50 million rubles for a 500,000 rubles bribe ($16,789).

According to Interior Ministry, the average bribe in Russia grew by 250 percent to over 230,000 rubles ($7,770) in 2011.