“The General Investigation Administration of the Russian MIA General Administration for Moscow completed the investigation of the criminal case on the fact of illegal banking carried out by an organized group in an especially large amount,” said Russian MIA official representative Irina Volk.

The preliminary investigation established that the organized group had been formed in 2010 based on the principle of association and community of unlawful interests. It mostly consisted of residents of Moscow and the Moscow Region born in 1977 - 1979 who were acquainted with each other. The group had a stable membership and acted in a well-coordinated manner when committing offenses.

The suspects had carried out illicit banking activities, including maintenance of accounts, provision of cash services to individuals and legal entities, cash collection and encashment.

To transfer funds, the community members had used the controlled dummy entities' accounts.

Based on that fact and the results of the check accomplished by the General Administration for Economic Security and Combating the Corruption of the Russian MIA in March 2015, the General Investigation Administration of the Moscow police initiated a criminal case based on essential elements of a crime stipulated by Part 2 Article 172 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Illegal banking activity”.

In the course of the searches performed at the suspects' places of residence and in the offices where they had carried out their illicit activities, the police detected and seized constituent and accounting documents, seals, contracts, payment orders, flash cards, bank cards, and cash in the amount of 200 thousand US dollars and 10 million rubles.

The police established that the overall illegal income obtained by the organized group as a result of the above unlawful banking activities and cash disbursement had exceeded 900 million rubles, which is considered to be an especially large amount.

By now, the final charge with the crime has been filed against all the members; the criminal case has been sent to the Preobrazhensky District Court of Moscow for consideration on the merits.