Officers of the MIA General Administration for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region revealed an illegal scheme of cashing funds to a total of two billion rubles.

The Police found that since 2011 over 4 years an organized group was operating in St. Petersburg, which was engaged in illegal cashing of funds of commercial companies.

According to the Police, to this end, there were registered fictitious companies that actually functioned as banks, without having relevant licenses. The organizers of the criminal scheme attracted customers from among legal entities interested in obtaining cash. Under the pretext of alleged payment for works, services or goods, customers transferred  funds to the accounts of fictitious companies, and subsequently the funds were cashed using credit cards. The organizers of the criminal scheme kept as their reward 4.6 per cent of the transferred amounts. Only within the frame of facts revealed by the Police, over four years there were illegally cashed at least two billion rubles.

8 persons suspected of organizing the criminal scheme have been established, including three managers of commercial banks. The police conducted a series of detentions and searches, including the searches in head offices of the two commercial banks. A criminal case was initiated on the fact of illegal banking activities.

Press-Service of the MIA General Administration for Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad Region