Russian law-enforcement agencies have opened a criminal case against unnamed employees of the Bank of Moscow for a 540 million ruble fraud, a source close to the bank said Friday, as cited by RIA Novosti.
The source said that the Bank of Moscow’s employees and other unidentified persons stole 540 million rubles from the bank under the guise of foreign exchange transactions in 2009–2010.
A source in the Interior Ministry confirmed that another case of theft in the Bank of Moscow had been opened, while declined to provide more details.
On Wednesday, the investigators opened one more case against Bank of Moscow’s former president Andrei Borodin and his deputy Dmitry Akulinin for over 6.7 billion ruble embezzlement.
Borodin and Akulinin allegedly transferred at least 7.8 billion rubles from the bank’s correspondent account to accounts of Cyprus-registered companies in 2008–2011, while around 1.1 billion rubles were later returned to the bank.
In February 2011, Borodin and Akulinin were also accused of abusing their positions of power in connection with the embezzlement of 12.5 billion rubles linked with real estate developer Premiere Estate.
In May 2011, Borodin and Akulinin, both of whom are reportedly abroad, were put on an international most wanted list, while Moscow’s Tverskoi Court authorized arrest warrants against both in absentia.
The Bank of Moscow is now being bailed out by state-controlled VTB Bank, which owns 95% in it and by the Deposit Insurance Agency as the Moscow bank was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2011 due to a number of bad loans provided by its previous management.