The Bank of Moscow will seek affected party status in a criminal case initiated by Swiss prosecutors against its former top managers Andrei Borodin and Dmitry Akulinin, a bank spokesperson said on Wednesday.
A source familiar with events told RIA Novosti last week that Swiss investigators froze the local bank accounts of former Bank of Moscow president, Andrei Borodin, and his former deputy Dmitry Akulinin.
The two former most senior managers of the Bank of Moscow were placed on an Interpol wanted list after a criminal case was opened against both in late 2010 on charges of fraud involving government funds, and money laundering.
“Bank of Moscow has been informed that Akulinin’s and Borodin’s Swiss bank accounts were blocked. We will seek affected party status in this criminal case,” a spokesperson told Prime news agency.
They are accused of illegally lending $443 million to shell companies which then transferred the funds to Yelena Baturina, the wife of Moscow’s former Mayor Yury Luzhkov and former owner of the construction empire Inteco.
But Borodin’s lawyer, Vladimir Krasnov, told Kommersant-FM business radio station on Tuesday that mass media reports about the blocked accounts are “rumors with a smell of disinformation.”
Another case was opened against Borodin and Akulinin in February this year on suspicion of stealing over $225 million.