Support The Moscow Times!

Stepashin Warns U.K. on Borodin

Audit Chamber Head Sergei Stepashin has sent to British Comptroller and Auditor General Amyas Morse a letter containing information about  alleged financial violations committed by former Bank of Moscow CEO Andrei Borodin, a news report said Tuesday.

Borodin was granted political asylum in Great Britain in February.

Speaking at the 2nd Eurasian Anti-Corruption Forum in Moscow, Stepashin said he had mentioned “all violations committed by this wretched banker discovered by the Audit Chamber".

Earlier, Stepashin said he had sent a similar letter to the head of the European Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions, asking him to convey that information to high-ranking British officials.

According to Stepashin, the Audit Chamber discovered a fraudulent scheme involving fly-by-night companies and offshore bank accounts used by Borodin to "illegally withdraw the bank's assets totaling 220 billion rubles ($7 billion) from the country.”

He said Swiss prosecutors had opened a criminal case and arrested Borodin's bank accounts in the country.

In late 2010, police initiated a case against Borodin and his deputy Dmitry Akulinin, accusing them of defrauding the Moscow city budget of 12.76 billion rubles by using a loan provided by the Bank of Moscow. The money ended up on a bank account belonging to the wife of former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, Yelena Baturina, according to the investigators.

In May 2011, a court issued an arrest warrant for Borodin and Akulinin.

Read more