In April 1794 a special committee was created by order of Empress Catherine II in order to deal with various complaints about Lambros Katsonis, who was active as a Russian privateer in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Russo-Turkish war of 1787-1791. Besides numerous protests by merchants from different countries who had lost their ships and cargo, Katsonis was also accused of non-payment of the prescribed percentage of his prize money to the Russian treasury. In refuting the allegation of tax evasion, Katsonis provided detailed explanations regarding seized ships and obtained money. He also pointed out that his squadron's expenditures had been covered without treasury assistance. One of the paragraphs of Katsonis's explanation related to a puzzling gesture toward Ahmed Bey al-Jezaar, the governor of Acre. In 1789, in the middle of the war, al-Jezaar was presented with 26-gun strong ship, taken previously by the privateer's squadron. According to Katsonis's explanation, this action was intended as a gift and, an even more intriguing detail, was made according to instructions given him by General Ivan Zaborovskiy, special Russian envoy in the Mediterranean. The reasons for such a questionable donation are unknown, although some speculation can be made in this regard. Most probably this episode reveals the secret efforts of the Russian government to save the life of its agent - Colonel Conrad von Thonus, who arrived in 1788 in Cairo and tried to persuade Mameluk leaders of Egypt to rebel against the Ottomans. Von Thonus was imprisoned in Cairo for a year and then executed.