MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Law enforcers are searching the Moscow office of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and have detained its founder, Alexei Navalny, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh told the media.

"The FBK is being searched. Navalny has been detained. The other staffers were allowed to leave for now," she said.

Lawyer Vladimir Voronin representing FBK Director Ivan Zhdanov has confirmed the searches are in progress.

"Yes, I know that searches are underway, but I have no other information," he told TASS.

On October 9, the Justice Ministry included the FBK in the list of NGOs operating as foreign agents. The Justice Ministry said the fund was involved in political activities and received foreign funding.

The Investigative Committee is probing into a criminal case opened over the legalization of cash assets used to fund the FBK under part 4 of article 174 of the Criminal Code. The investigators say that persons involved in the foundation’s activities received a large amount of cash in rubles and foreign currencies in January 2016 - December 2018. The cash was of criminal origin. The IC says that the accomplices laundered the cash assets. The money was eventually used to finance FBK activities. In the process of the investigation courts arrested the bank accounts of the FBK and the NGO called Protection of Citizens’ Rights and more than 100 accounts belonging to a number of individuals and legal entities.