Police seized 7 billion rubles ($3.3 million) in cash at Irkutsk airport Tuesday that belonged to the Russian House of Selenga, an investment company that suspended its operations over the weekend. The cash was to have been flown aboard a charter plane to Volgograd, central Russia, where Selenga has its headquarters, police said.
The Moscow branch of the House of Selenga was not available for comment Wednesday.
Viktor Doroshenko, the acting head of Irkutsk tax police, said in a telephone interview that the money was seized because it breached a recent presidential decree limiting the amount of cash companies can pay each other to a mere 500,000 rubles. Transactions that exceed this amount should be made by bank transfer. Selenga's Irkutsk branch was registered as an independent company.
The decree, designed to curb tax evasion, stipulates that a fine should be imposed for violating the regulation that is double the value of the cash being transferred, Doroshenko said. That means Selenga is facing a fine of over $6 million.
Nikolai Ivanov, the deputy head of Russian tax service, told Interfax that several other branches of Selenga have already been found guilty of violating the cash transaction regulation and that the company owes billions of rubles in unpaid taxes and fines.
Doroshenko said that the cash seized at Irkutsk, 4,000 kilometers east of Moscow, has been returned to the company on condition that it is immediately lodged in the firm's bank account.
The tax police also confiscated financial documents from the company to investigate possible tax violations, he said.
"The local branch of the company is under investigation and it is likely to have to pay a huge fine," Doroshenko said, but would not provide details of suspected tax violations committed by Selenga.
Selenga, which promised in its television commercials to add five rubles daily to every 1,000 rubles deposited, suspended its operations over the weekend. But the company pledged to resume operations as soon as it receives a banking license.
A Volgograd court ruled 1 1/2 years ago that the firm's operations were illegal because it was operating like a bank but lacked the proper license.
Officials at the Central Bank and Finance Ministry, contacted Wednesday, could not explain why the court ruling was never enforced.
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