 |
|
|||||||||
.
PRESS Emanuel Zeltser helps expose Russian money laundering Inquiry on Bank Transfers Could Grow NEW YORK -- Two companies facing charges of illicit money transfers through Bank of New York Co. had accounts at Barclays Bank PLC in London as long ago as 1996, through which several million dollars may have passed, people familiar with the matter say. The accounts raise the possibility that the operators of the alleged illegal fund-transfer scheme were using a broader network of western banks to funnel money out of Russia than was previously known. In the case of the transfers through Bank of New York, $7.5 billion (&7.01 billion) was moved through nine accounts from 1996 to August of this year. Neither Barclays nor Bank of New York has been accused of any wrongdoing. It isn't clear if the Barclays accounts remain open. A spokesman for Barclays said, "We can't comment on individual customers, but obviously we take any allegations of this sort seriously." In light of the probe into allegedly illegal transfers at the Bank of New York, law-enforcement authorities are now investigating the transfers through Barclays accounts held by Benex International Co. and BECS International LLC. Earlier this week, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan charged Benex, BECS and a third firm, Torfinex Corp., along with three Russian immigrants, with conspiracy to illegally transmit and receive money. The three individuals are Peter Berlin, a principal of Benex, his wife Lucy Edwards, a fired executive at Bank of New York, and Aleksey Volkov, who ran Torfinex. Messrs. Volkov and Berlin and the companies they controlled were also charged with two additional counts -- illegal money transmitting and receiving deposits illegally. All of the charges were in relation to alleged illegalities in accounts at Bank of New York. Lawyers for all the defendants have declined to comment specifically on the indictments but have said their clients did nothing wrong. Separately, Bank of New York is facing a $1 billion lawsuit from depositors of Russia's defunct Inkombank, who allege that the New York bank helped Inkombank managers loot hundreds of millions of dollars from their institution by serving as a business connection to the West. The complaint, filed in U.S. district court in Manhattan, contends that Inkombank's senior managers engaged in a scheme to siphon money from the bank through a network of offshore shell corporations. By serving as a correspondent bank to Inkombank, Bank of New York enabled Inkombank officials to transfer large amounts of money offshore through such schemes as lending money to corporations they secretly controlled, the lawsuit alleges. Correspondent banks help foreign banks conduct routine transactions such as wire transfers. A Bank of New York spokesman said, "Based on our review, we believe this suit is without merit and we intend to pursue a vigorous defense." Wayne Matus, a New York attorney who has represented Inkombank in the past, said, "In the course of my representation of Inkombank I saw no reason to believe that any of those allegations are correct." Emanuel Zeltser , one of the plaintiff's attorneys, said, "Over a hundred thousand people, primarily old people, lost their life's savings, and the purpose of this lawsuit is to retrieve at least some of it." --- Ann Davis contributed to this article.
|| OUR
MISSION || NEWS || LEGAL
REFORM || RESEARCH
||
|
||||||||||
| _________ |
ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL APPEARING ON ARLI PAGES IS LINKED OR REPRODUCED FOR NON-COMMERCIAL EDUCATIONAL OR RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY. ARLI HAS NO CONTROL OVER ITS CONTENT OR AVAILABILITY. VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIRD-PARTY MATERIAL DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE AMERICAN RUSSIAN LAW INSTITUTE.
|
|||||||||
