Translated material
How to withdraw money with "DISCOUNT"
The New Times conducted its own investigation into the story of the massive withdrawal of money to the West by high-profile Russian officials close to the Kremlin-controlled oil companies and the leadership of the economic security service of the FSB.
With "DISCOUNT" for life. On December 18, the Moscow City Court overturned the decision of the Tverskoy Court to initiate a criminal case against Major of Justice Sergei Solyanova, who led and closed the case of the DISCOUNT bank. Currently, documents and material evidence have begun to disappear from the case. The New Times ran its own eight-month investigation into a story about a massive withdrawal of money to the West by high-profile Russian officials close to Kremlin-controlled oil companies and the leadership of the economic security service of the Russian FSB.
The scheme for withdrawing money was revealed during an audit in criminal case No. 248089, initiated on September 8, 2006, as a result of the proceedings of the Department of Economic Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia “in relation to unidentified persons from among the employees of MKB DISCOUNT” (LLC) on the grounds of crimes under Art. 173 and p. "a" part 3 of Art. 174 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The articles deal with the creation of front companies without the intention to carry out entrepreneurial activities (Article 173) and the laundering of money or other property acquired by other persons in a criminal way (Article 174).
According to the Interior Ministry, the scheme, which involved from 50 to 100 Russian banks - including five of the top ten largest banks in Russia - worked as follows. The main key elements were two banks - the Moscow commercial bank "DISCOUNT" and the Austrian Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG. According to The New Times, one of the largest Latvian banks was also used to dilute money in numerous Western accounts. Out of more than 50 Russian banks, the money, as a rule, was first transferred to the accounts of 17 Russian firms registered as nominees. Many of them were allegedly created with the assistance of the banking structures themselves. The list of banks whose clients transferred large sums to the accounts of these 17 firms includes Gazprombank, Alfa-Bank, International Development Bank, Vneshtorgbank Yekaterinburg, Vneshtorgbank Belgorod, Vneshtorgbank Retail Services, RACB Moscow, Sberbank of Russia (Moscow), Impexbank, Master Bank, Nefteprombank, Transcapitalbank, International Industrial Bank, Stroyprombank, Sotsinvestbank, Senator Bank, Rusbank, Lesprombank, Investsberbank, Sobinbank, Moscow Credit Bank, Russlavbank, Runa Bank, Grand Invest Bank, etc. “There is a real hunt for this list, for each name of the bank, so that it disappears from the list, they offer $150,000. So do the math yourself – the cost of the list is at least over $15 million,” said sources close to the FSB. The money received by 17 firms was then transferred to the accounts of sham Russian commercial companies, the so-called LLCs, created by the DISCOUNT bank (among them Solange LLC and Saturn-M LLC), and from them - to the accounts of three foreign offshore companies in Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands. Then the money was transferred to other foreign banks - through the Austrian "Raiffeisen" and one of the major Latvian banks.
“According to various estimates, this scheme worked for eight months. If you do not take weekends into account, then in 200 days it was possible to withdraw about $ 5 billion. On average, banks take 7% of the amount for laundering - the so-called "laundering rate". It turns out that the banks could earn about $350 million just for transferring this money. And it is clear that this is not the only scheme that was used,” Kirill Kabanov, president of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, said in an interview with The New Times.
Andrey Kozlov
There were also victims in the laundering case: investigators suggest that the murder of Andrei Kozlov, deputy head of the Central Bank of Russia, is connected with it. He was killed on September 13, 2006, two weeks after the license was revoked from the DISCOUNT bank (Kozlov personally revoked the license) and just five days after the initiation of criminal case No. 248089 against the management of the bank. Sergei Ignatiev and his deputy Viktor Melnikov in the criminal case on the murder of Andrei Kozlov. From the testimony of Ignatiev: “I want to express my version of the causes of Kozlov's death. I believe that the one who organized the DISCOUNT bank scheme probably also ordered the murder of Kozlov. In the same case, the testimony of Viktor Melnikov is given, who also connects the murder with the illegal activities of the DISCOUNT bank. However, despite these testimonies of the leaders of the Central Bank, who worked side by side with the murdered Andrei Kozlov, the version of the connection between the murder and the specified bank was practically not considered in the criminal case. The main suspect in the murder is still the banker Alexei Frenkel. The investigation into his case has already been completed, and the trial will begin soon. Bank "DISCOUNT" is not mentioned in the case file.
Dissenting Austria
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The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor's Office of Austria have a different opinion. The version about the possible connection of the DISCOUNT case with the murder of Andrey Kozlov should, in their opinion, be thoroughly investigated. The New Times obtained materials from the annual report on the fight against money laundering and prepared by the Austrian Ministry of the Interior on the results of the work of the Austrian Financial Intelligence Unit in 2006 (the report was submitted at the end of April 2007). From the part of the report concerning Russia, it follows that in 2006 a number of suspicious monetary transactions were carried out between a certain Austrian and Russian banks (names are not specified).
“When A-FIU (Austrian Financial Intelligence Unit. - The New Times) assessed the accounts, it was found that within only four days a total of $ 112,056,429 and two cents were credited to the correspondent account of a Russian bank, which, on behalf of three offshore companies through 189 transactions were immediately distributed to 50 other offshore companies with addresses and bank accounts around the world,” the report says.
“This crime (the murder of Andrei Kozlov. - The New Times) could be related to his activities. The head of the banking supervision department of the Russian Central Bank, right up to the incident, was on the phone with A-FIU and an Austrian bank, ”the same report states.
In the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, the case of money laundering through two banks - Austrian and Russian - was investigated and already in June 2007 was transferred to the Austrian court in Vienna. The Austrian side, referring to the secrecy of the investigation, refuses to comment on the details of the case yet and suggests contacting their Russian colleagues. According to the latest information, the Austrian prosecutor's office is preparing an indictment. Their Russian colleagues, despite carefully reading The New Times materials, did not give a single official comment.
Comrade in misfortune
The fate of the Russian criminal case, unlike the history of his Austrian brother, is connected with several scandalous events at once. As it turned out, the decision to terminate the criminal case No. 248089 was signed in secret from the Austrian colleagues on June 8, 2007. The investigator for especially important cases of the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Major of Justice Sergei Solyanov, who was in charge of the DISCOUNT case, did not establish any corpus delicti in the actions of bank employees. Pointing out in the resolution itself the violation of two federal laws at once - on money laundering and currency regulation - as well as the instructions of the official letter of the Central Bank No. the number of employees of the ICB "DISCOUNT" (LLC) there is no corpus delicti under Art. 173, paragraph "a" part 3 of Art. 174 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The decision to close the case was sent to the Prosecutor General's Office. According to The New Times, there it was approved by supervising prosecutor Ibragim Rasulov. Coincidence or not, but soon after the closure of the criminal case, Solyanov's financial situation improved markedly - he bought an apartment in Moscow, as well as a new Volvo XC-90 car.
Further events developed even more rapidly. According to The New Times sources close to the Prosecutor General's Office, in early August, Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin signed a resolution declaring the closure of criminal case No. 248089 illegal. Almost three months later, on October 29, 2007, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow issued a decision to open a criminal case against investigator Solyanov. The Major of Justice was charged with at least one article of the Criminal Code, namely abuse of power. It would seem that the triumph of the law: the Prosecutor General's Office did not allow the criminal case to be quietly closed, in which, according to The New Times sources, the top leadership of the FSB is also involved. However, pitfalls were discovered immediately.
A forceful turn A new criminal case against investigator Solyanov - that is, the case of the illegal termination of the DISCOUNT case - was far from being dealt with by the Prosecutor General's Office, but by the recently created Investigative Committee (IC) under it. 1 . Its head, Alexander Bastrykin, is known for his closeness to the FSB and to Igor Sechin, deputy head of the Kremlin administration. Analysts "in civilian clothes" and journalists attribute Bastrykin to a group that is directly connected with the Lubyanka. The recent introduction of about 50 FSB officers, retired or in reserve, can also serve as confirmation. It turns out an interesting picture - the Investigative Committee, close to the FSB, has received full control over the case, in which, as they say, the top leadership of the Lubyanka may be involved. In other words, “their own” get full access to all the materials of the criminal case of “DISCOUNT”, among which there are documents that directly or indirectly prove the involvement of people from high offices in the money laundering story.
The events of the last week only prove that the confrontation between power groups is intensifying. As it became known to The New Times, on December 18, the Moscow City Court overturned the decision of the Tverskoy Court to open a criminal case against investigator Solyanov. According to The New Times sources, Solyanov will no longer be able to work as an investigator, but he should be generously compensated for this loss. “They will simply buy his silence,” the source is sure. “The main task now is to clean up all the loose ends, removing all documents from the file.”
1 According to The New Times, the new criminal case is being investigated by Valery Khomitsky, who a year ago led the investigation team into the murder of Deputy Central Bank Governor Andrey Kozlov. The version about the connection of the murder with the DISCOUNT bank, despite the statements of the Austrian law enforcement agencies, was excluded from the case.