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Russian police raided Thursday the offices of the Bank of Moscow and Inteko, a property developer owned by the wife of Moscow's former mayor, in a probe into suspected embezzlement linked to a $440 million loan. The raid has been called one of the first cracks in a multi-billion dollar business empire, led by ousted mayor Yuri Luzhkov and his property mogul wife Yelena Baturina. The empire has faced numerous accusations of corruption since Luzhkov was fired as mayor last year after a public fallout with the Kremlin and replaced with Sergei Sobyanin, a close ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The homes of the directors of the Bank of Moscow were also raided as well as the bank's offices in central Moscow, an unnamed official of the interior ministry's investigative department said in a statement. The official said employees at the Bank of Moscow and real estate developer Premiere Estate were suspected of embezzling about $444.2 million, after the money showed up in Baturina's personal account. Baturina denied Inteko was under investigation and said the raid was a clear attempt by the authorities to pressure her. "I absolutely firmly know that this raid is not linked in anyway to us or to the Bank of Moscow. It has just been ordered to put pressure on us," she told Interfax. Reuters |
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