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Police suspect Fondservisbank of helping criminals expatriate 100 bln rbls

Zdor did not rule out that a number of commercial bank executives might be detained within the case

MOSCOW, March 15 (Itar-Tass) — The Interior Ministry’s main department for economic security and combating corruption /GUEBiPK/ suspects the administration of the Fondservesbank in helping an organized criminal group expatriate more than 100 billion roubles, deputy GUEBiPK chief Andrei Zdor said on Thursday.

"The illegal scheme envisioned a serious of transactions to sell/purchase shares of leading Russian companies /blue chips/ where offshore companies and fly-by-night firms acted as sellers or buyers. These firms were subordinate to the masterminds behind the scheme. "The securities were transferred to the DEPO accounts of offshore companies, sold at the MICEX and RTS stock exchanges and the money derived from sales was remitted to foreign banks' accounts," Zdor said.

Police charged Mr Nedyalkov under Article 174-1, and Article 172, Part 2 of Russia's Criminal Code. A total of 3.2 billion roubles of funds on the DEPO settlement accounts used in these illegal activities have been arrested.

Zdor did not rule out that a number of commercial bank executives might be detained within the case.

"Police searched several commercial organizations, including Fondservisbank, where they found and retrieved documents showing possible violation of legislation in servicing the accounts of state-funded organizations, operations with state securities and sale and purchase of foreign currencies," the GUEBiPK official explained.

Fondservisbank had the accounts of the organizations involved in transferring the bulk of money. "The documents related to the criminal case have been found and retrieved, they show possible involvement of the bank's administration in the illegal scheme, including the failure to supply information to the national fiscal monitoring agency about large financial operations.

The illegal scheme was exposed during the efforts to fulfill tasks designated by an interdepartmental group combating illegal banking operations, chaired by First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov.

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