“The unlawful scheme involved a chain of deals for the purchase and sale of shares from leading Russian companies (blue chips), where the sellers and the buyers were offshore companies and shell firms controlled by their organizers,” Zdor said.
The ministry has raided some organizations including Fondservisbank, where the accounts of firms handling the transit of the bulk of funds were registered, as part of their investigation.
Zdor said the law-enforcement agencies suspect Fondservisbank of breaking laws related to servicing the accounts of budget-financed organizations.
“During the search at Fondservisbank, the investigators found and seized documents testifying to a possible breach of legislation in the process of servicing the accounts of budget-dependent organizations, carrying out operations with government securities and the purchase and sale of foreign currency,” he said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently criticized major state-run companies for channeling profits into offshore accounts.
Following Putin’s instructions, Russia’s Audit Chamber has launched inspections at the biggest state companies, Gazprom, Transneft, Russian Railways, Sovcomflot, VTB, Vnesheconombank, Rosatom, Sberbank and others, in search of corruption connected with offshore accounts.
SOURCES : RIA Novosti
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