Russian gov't issues denial re: laundering
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See the article in its original context from August 1999.
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"I have no information indicating that Russia has anything to do with this problem, so there is no need for the government to interfere," Finance Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told a news conference.
U.S. authorities are investigating the Bank of New York, where some $4.2 billion passed through a single account in more than 10,000 transactions between October and March, the New York Times reported last week.
It has been described as potentially one of the biggest money laundering schemes ever uncovered in the United States.
The bank said last week it "has been cooperating with the office of the U.S. attorney in the confidential investigation of the use of bank facilities to transfer funds from Russia to other countries."
The bank has suspended two Russian-born executives, Natasha Gurfinkel Kagalovsky, a senior vice president who supervised the bank's East European division. out of New York, and Lucy Edwards, a bank vice president in London. Neither the women nor the bank have been charged with any wrongdoing.
Both women are married to Russian businessmen. Kagalovsky's husband Konstantin Kagalovsky was Russia's representative to the International Monetary Fund from 1992-95, and later worked as a senior executive at Russia's Menatep bank. He is now vice-president of Russia's oil giant Yukos.
Edwards husband is Peter Berlin, who had authority over one of the accounts in question, the New York Times reported. There have been no accusations the Russian government was involved in the case. However, there have been frequent allegations of high-level official corruption in Russia in recent years.
The Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra reported Wednesday that Swiss and Russian prosecutors investigating the Russian mafia uncovered payments of more than $1 million to President Boris Yeltsin and his daughters. The report said the money came from an Albanian-born contractor, Bahgjet Pacolli, hired to work on the Kremlin and the Russian parliament building.
A Kremlin spokesman denied the report.
"It does not correspond to reality," he said.
Corriere della Sera said Pacolli told Swiss investigative magistrate Carla Del Ponte sent the money through a series of bank accounts, including one. owned by Yeltsin aide Pavel Borodin. He said the money ended up in an account in Budapest for Yeltsin's use while there on a state visit.
Yeltsin's last state visit to Budapest was in 1994. The Swiss investigation is being conducted by Del Ponte, who this month was named head of the U.N.'s war crimes tribunal.
