Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Money laundering in Russia put at $11.2bn
10–29–2006 RBC News – Money laundering in Russia is estimated at between RUR 250 billion and RUR 300 billion (approx. $9.3 billion to $11.2 billion) a year, Deputy Interior Minister Andrei Novikov told reporters following an interdepartmental conference on money laundering prevention on Thursday. In this respect, he said, the situation was particularly bad in the credit and financial system and on the consumer market. From January to September 2006, crimes related to money laundering accounted for 31.1 percent of all crimes in the credit and financial system, up from 28.6 percent in the same period of last year. On the consumer market, money laundering crimes made up 19.9 percent, against 24.1 percent last year. The Central Bank continues to combat money laundering, withdrawing licenses from guilty banks. In the first nine months of this year alone, 49 banks were closed at the request of the Interior Ministry, and 60 criminal proceedings were initiated, with total money laundering operations of more than RUR 152 billion (approx. $5.65 billion). Sergei Stepashin, Chairman of Russia’s Audit Chamber, said last week that Russian law did not provide for sufficient transparency of the banking system. Loopholes in the Russian legislation “do not allow us to provide an effective barrier against such widespread financial operations as illegal encashment,” he complained. A bill against those involved in money laundering has been submitted to the State Duma recently. Under this bill, financial institution employees involved in money laundering will be disqualified for five years. This measure will help purify the banking community, the authors of the bill hope.
# posted by Deval : 3:50 AM
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