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Togliatti court to review 150-million-rouble theft case

In the beginning, the fraudster singled out two firms it her "business empire" which specialized in manufacturing plastic parts for VAZ cars

MOSCOW, October 27 (Itar-Tass) — The federal court of Togliatti's Avtozavodsky district will review a case against the local resident suspected of stealing some 150 million roubles from Alfa-Bank and legalizing the money, the investigation department of the Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass.

"It was ascertained in the course of preliminary investigation that the wrongdoer, as de-factor owner of a group of companies which comprised over 100 commercial firms, designed and implemented a scheme to steal 148 million roubles of funds belonging to Alfa Bank JSC," the investigation department said.

In the beginning, the fraudster singled out two firms it her "business empire" which specialized in manufacturing plastic parts for VAZ cars, lubricants and solvents. All products were supplied to the AvtoVAZ car make under effective contracts.

From 2004, the woman repeatedly drew loans to fund the operation of the above two companies, and invariably returned them to Alfa-Bank, thus creating a good credit history for them.

However, the documents requesting loans sometimes contained fictitious information about the real financial position of the borrowers, according to police.

"In 2007, the woman decided on a tricky move: she registered at the tax bodies another two legal entities with the same names, which only differed by registration data (the effective legislation does not prohibit it), and transferred the personnel and equipment on balance to them. The first two companies which had earned a good credit history became dummies.

Next, she concluded with AvtoVAZ another contract to supply products on behalf of the dummy firms, and got a 148-million-rouble credit line from Alfa-Bank for the purpose.

"The woman then gradually cashed out the funds using the so-called fly-by-night firms. It is not the only episode in her criminal activity. "Law-enforcement bodies have information that she had cheated at other banks," the Interior Ministry said.

Criminal proceedings were opened against the 46-year-old Togliatti resident under Aritcle159, Part 4 of Russia's Criminal Code ("grand fraud") and Article 174.1, part 1 ("money laundering"). The case has been referred to the federal court of Togliatti's Avtozavodsky district, police said.