Russian banks withdrew over US $18 bn through Moldova

The law enforcement bodies of Russia are investigating the withdrawal of around RUB 700 bn (over US $18 bn) from Russia through Moldova.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia has received the letters from Moldova’s financial monitoring service and anti-money laundering service of the National Anticorruption Center, according to which false rulings were issued by Moldovan district courts to withdraw massive funds from Russia, as Vedomosti reported.

Following the scheme, foreign companies concluded loan agreements under which the Russian companies allegedly took loans in the amount of hundreds of millions of dollars (from US $100 mn to US $875 mn) or acted as the guarantors.

The obligations under these fictitious debts were not carried out and the creditors applied to Moldovan courts as the citizens of this country were also guarantors. The guarantors were from the socially vulnerable families and did not know anything about these loan agreements. Their signatures were falsified, said Deputy Head of the Main Department for Economic Security and Corruption Prevention of the Russian Interior Ministry Sergey Solopov.

Among the Russian banks involved in the fraud are Rublyovskiy, Intercapital-Bank, Smartbank, Baltica, Strategy, European Express, Russian Land Bank, Tempbank, Okskiy, according to Vedomosti. All these banks have accounts with Moldova’s BC Moldindconbank S.A.

From March 2011 to April 2014, around RUB 700 bn (over US $18 bn) were withdrawn.

In addition, the funds were removed from the accounts of around a hundred Russian companies with 21 Russian banks. They were transferred to 19 companies registered in the United Kingdom, New Zeland, Belize, Moldova and Latvia.