A criminal scheme to withdraw assets operated by the Russian Master Bank, which was revoked late 2013, was disclosed, daily newspaper Kommersant says.
According to the media, about 1 billion rubles were written off to the staff like junior clerks, drivers, security, and cleaners.
The employees took out unsecured loans of up to €5 million. They were receiving part of that money as a bonus, while the rest of it went to their employers. Those funds were partially pocketed and partially spent on the bank’s “business needs”.
Now, the bankruptcy trustee wants to get that money back from the bank’s staff. However, the personnel went to the police. The board members granting the fake loans have not been found out yet. The culprits will be charged with abuse of power and fraud.
Master Bank is in bankruptcy proceedings now. The costs incurred by the procedure might total more than 921 million rubles. The financial institution was declared bankrupt on January 16 after the Bank of Russia filed a suit against it. The central bank took away the Master bank license for the period until November 2014. The regulator came to such a decision after the law on combatting money laundering was violated. In addition, Master Bank was engaged in suspicious activity involving 200 billion rubles.
The case of revocation of the Master Bank’s license was the biggest in the Deposit Insurance Agency’s history. The bank owes 30 billion rubles in claims of the holders’ whose deposits are covered by banking insurance.