"Financial instrument"

The Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted searches at Promsvyazbank

Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs yesterday conducted searches in a number of offices of the capital's Promsvyazbank. According to official information, they were connected with a criminal case initiated by the investigative unit of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Central Federal District (GU MVD for the Central Federal District) regarding the raider seizure of a certain building in Moscow. At the end of the search, the investigators left without seizing anything. It was officially announced that the police did not have any complaints against the bankers, and it was about one of their clients. However, a little later, Interfax, citing an interlocutor in the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central Federal District, reported that one of the bank’s responsible employees was still involved in the case.

The searches were carried out at the bank's head office on Smirnovskaya Street, at a branch on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, as well as at the bank's subsidiary Promsvyaznedvizhimost on Derbenevskaya Embankment, which is engaged in the implementation of investment projects in the commercial real estate market. Promsvyazbank officially confirmed the fact of the searches, saying that they were related to the activities of one of the bank’s clients and had nothing to do with the work of the credit institution itself. “The bank is operating as usual,” the bank’s press service said. In the additional office “Mozhaisky” they said that people in civilian clothes were with them until lunch, communicating with the management. At the same time, Promsvyaznedvizhimost reported that in connection with investigative measures, the company announced a short working day and employees were sent home from noon.

The Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Central Federal District officially stated that during the investigation it was established that “the bank was only a financial instrument in the hands of a group of criminals.” Interfax's interlocutor said that a group of people appears as suspects in the case, including a high-ranking bank employee who had office offices both in the head office and in the bank branch on Slavyanskaya Square. In addition, the bank noted that during the investigative actions, no official seizure of documents was carried out, and the persons who appeared in the decisions on their conduct never worked at the bank.

Promsvyazbank is among the 15 largest Russian banks and among the top 300 banks in Europe in terms of equity capital. The main co-owners of the bank are brothers Alexey and Dmitry Ananyev. Senator Dmitry Ananyev was elected chairman of the Committee on Financial Markets and Monetary Circulation of the Federation Council last week.

Alexey IVLEV