A discount was released

The country is unlikely to find out the names of the heroes of the case of "discount"

The Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Vienna Supreme Court continue the investigation of the case of laundering large amounts of money through Discontan banks and Austrian Raiffeisenbank. However, as The New Times found out, the names of those who participated in cashing and withdrawal of $ 1.5 billion are becoming a chance to name in the court session, there are less and less

The head of the Department of Investigation of organized criminal activities in the field of economics of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation ^1, General of Justice, Igor Tsokolov, informed The New Times about the continuation of the investigation of case No. 248089 on illegal cashing and withdrawing money from the country through the discount banks and the Austrian Raiffeisenbank. For two years now, this case is closing, then it opens again. However, Tsokolov said that the termination of the investigation is currently not about. True, the investigators still have not been able to achieve any significant results. “We don’t have suspects,” said Major General Zokolov, answering the New Times. - The matter is very complicated. We are talking about withdrawing 41 billion rubles. ”

Defended, but did not open

Igor Tsokolov admitted that in Russia there are almost no precedents of court decisions in cases of illegal banking. True, in the near future, the case of the banker Boris Sokalsky, who is accused of “illegally cashing, 64 billion rubles” will be transferred to the court (The New Times wrote in detail in No. 14 of April 7, 2008). The “discount” case is unlikely to reach the court. Back in 2007, The New Times wrote that this investigation has powerful opponents in the highest echelons of the authorities, which make serious efforts to collapse and close the case. Zokolov claims that the investigation is ongoing. But the interlocutors of The New Times in the IC of the Ministry of Internal Affairs argue that in recent months this “investigation” has come down to the stubborn struggle of investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with colleagues from the UK under the Prosecutor General’s Office, who do everything to terminate the work.

Recall that criminal case No. 248089 on the massive withdrawal of money with senior officials through the Russian Discont and Austrian Raiffeisenbank was instituted on September 8, 2006 (The New Times first wrote about this in No. 15 of May 21, 2007). The basis for this was the materials of the audit conducted by the 36th Department of the 7th Operational Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, as well as the results of the inspection (it was completed on September 5, 2006) of the Central Bank of the Russian Central Bank of the Discontus from May 2 to August 31, 2006. Both checks were carried out on the initiative and with the direct assistance of the former deputy head of the Central Bank of Russia Andrei Kozlov, killed five days after the initiation of a criminal case. The New Times described in detail the money withdrawal scheme through the “discount” using a number of banks, among which, among other five banks from the Russian top list and the Austrian Raiffeisenbank. Following the publication, a wide international resonance followed: the leading world media wrote about the “discount” scheme, and the Austrian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the completion of their own investigation in the case of money laundering from Russia and the transfer of it to the Supreme Court/ General Prosecutor's Office (these two departments in Austria are united) in Vienna.

However, since then, neither the Austrian nor the Russian law enforcement agencies succeeded in success. There is a fact of transferring money through a complex system of banks and offshores, but the beneficiaries cannot be determined. The spokesman for the Austrian General Prosecutor's Office Gerhard Yarosh, like Major General Zokolov, in an interview with The New Times confirmed that the Austrians continued to invest, but “still has not been able to establish persons involved in the commission of this crime.”

Internal repressions

But if the Austrians still expect to achieve the desired result, then the interlocutors of The New Times in the Ministry of Internal Affairs admit that for domestic investigators it is not a matter of disclosure of the case in the first place for a long time, but the issue of personal survival. After the detention of employees of the Department for Combating Organized Crime and Terrorism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dmitry Zelyakov and Alexander Nosenko, who investigated the activities of the financial swindle of Yevgeny Dvoskin-Ssovskin (The New Times No. 31 of August 4, 2008), investigators were waiting for new reflections in their ranks. True, there were no more arrests, but the department in which targets and Nosenko worked was soon disbanded by the decree of President Dmitry Medvedev. On the sidelines of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they say that in the near future the investigator for particularly important cases Gennady Shantin will be sent to a voluntary pension. It is he who leads the group to investigate the discount case.

General Zokolov and investigator Chantin have not yet commented on this information. At the same time, the interlocutors of The New Times in the IC of the Ministry of Internal Affairs suggest that the fate of the discount case will be finally decided after the completion of the trial of the main suspect in the murder of Andrei Kozlov Alexei Frenkel. On October 14, in the Moscow City Court, the debate of the parties began in the case of the murder of the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank. At the end of the debate, the court must announce the date of the sentence. The prosecutor has already demanded that all eight suspects of this crime guide the guilty. At the same time, few people still seriously believe in the involvement of the banker Alexei Frenkel in this loud crime in the banking community. Kozlov’s colleagues tried to voice the version in court that the murder of the official was connected with the Discontus case, but, as the New Times (No. 13 dated March 31, 2008) wrote, as soon as this version was voiced, Judge Natalya Oliver immediately announced further hearings closed. The New Times will monitor the process of Alexei Frenkel and the fate of the Discont.

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¹ completely the name of this management is as follows: the Office for the investigation of criminal activity against the economic security of the interests of the service and the order.