| Second day of searches in large banks The volleys of law enforcement agencies against MDM Bank, in the central office of which documents were being seized until Wednesday evening, did not have time to “die down,” when yesterday morning employees of the Prosecutor General’s Office visited the office of Neftyanoy Bank with a search warrant. According to official information, neither the prosecutor's office nor the Ministry of Internal Affairs have any claims against the banks: in both cases we are talking about clients of credit institutions. It is also noteworthy that the investigative actions were carried out within the framework of criminal cases initiated under the same article - legalization (laundering) of funds acquired illegally. This seems to be where all the similarities end. In the first case, we are apparently talking about the activities of several banks that are subject to the “laundering” clause. In particular, this concerns the activities of Vizavi Bank, as well as the small Emal Bank. In connection with yesterday's searches at Neftyan, market participants do not rule out that what happened may be related to the disgraced YUKOS.
The searches at Neftyan (one of the top 100 Russian banks) began in the morning. “This is a working moment. They came to look at the client’s documents, a through check, usual for our prosecutor’s office. This is not even our client, there were simply postings to our accounts. This is just a check on a third-party matter not related to the bank’s activities,” explained the head of the bank’s press service, Anna Yartseva.
The Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed the fact of the searches, saying that “the ongoing investigative actions are related to the investigation of a criminal case initiated on the basis of illegal banking transactions through Neftyanoy.” “These operations have signs of laundering proceeds from crime,” explained a representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Meanwhile, market participants do not rule out that the visit of employees of the Prosecutor General’s Office is related to investigations into YUKOS. However, the Prosecutor General’s Office itself neither confirmed nor denied the connection between the searches and the YUKOS case. And the chairman of the board of directors of the concern, Boris Nemtsov, in a conversation with an Interfax correspondent, rejected such assumptions. According to him, Neftyanoy Bank was not associated with the YUKOS company. “We carried out some operations for YUKOS. But there were no property or corporate connections.” This spring, the bank's management team almost completely changed. Marina Chekurova, who previously headed ARCO, was appointed Chairman of the Board of Neftyanoy. And back in winter, a well-known banker, former top manager of Alfa Bank and UralSib, Evgeny Bernshtam, came to the bank as a member of the board of directors. The personnel changes were associated with the decision of the owner of the bank, the president of the Neftyanoy concern, Igor Linshits, who was dissatisfied with the way the business was being conducted by the previous team.
Let us note that since the spring of this year, law enforcement agencies have significantly intensified their activities in relation to Russian banks. For example, in the summer almost every week there were reports of seizures of documents and searches in medium and small banks. Some of them had their licenses revoked precisely under the “laundering” clause. As Interfax reported yesterday, citing its source in law enforcement agencies, “it is possible that similar investigative actions will be carried out in a number of other banks in the near future.” The appearance of law enforcement officers in banks does seem to be becoming commonplace, and over time will probably attract less and less interest from the public. Georgy PANOV |
|
