А вот вам ещё Вова на закуску...
(Я что-то ничего подобного про эти 22,5 миллиардов на Полигоне не вижу - может это где ещё????
Я просто читаю про этот иск и млею...
Russia claim ratchets tensions with west
By Isabel Gorst in Moscow, Stefan Wagstyl in Chisinau and David Wighton in New York
Published: May 17 2007 19:20 | Last updated: May 17 2007 19:20
Russia on Wednesday launched a $22.5bn claim against a US bank for alleged collaboration in tax evasion, opening a new front in a widening political conflict with the west.
The claim against the Bank of New York by the Russian federal customs service (FCS) relates to a money-laundering case more than a decade old and which appeared to have been resolved.
The move comes on the eve of a Russia-European summit which itself has been overshadowed by bitter arguments between Moscow and Brussels on issues ranging from energy security to alleged Kremlin-inspired electronic attacks on official Estonian websites.
Friday’s summit follows an unsuccessful bid this week by Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, to reassure Russia over American plans for missile defence bases in eastern Europe.
While Russian, US and European diplomats deny the current chill heralds the start of a new cold war, many concede relations between Russia and the west have hit their lowest point since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Vladimir Zubkov, FCS deputy head of external affairs, said the claim against BoNY, filed in the Moscow arbitration court, was for unpaid taxes on money taken out of Russia via an illegal scheme facilitated by the US bank.
A US investigation into the BoNY’s involvement in the scandal ended in 2005 after the bank admitted criminal conduct and reached a $14m settlement with federal prosecutors. Two Russian йmigrйs – one of whom was a BoNY vice president - admitted laundering at least $7bn through the bank, using accounts at the bank to channel funds from Moscow to parties all around the world. There were sentenced last year.
BoNY shares fell almost 5 per cent on reports of the suit but quickly recovered after the bank issued a strongly worded statement describing it as “totally without merit, if not frivolous”.
It said the bank had recently been “approached by lawyers purporting to represent this agency who claimed to be able to dispose of the matter for a tiny fraction of the amount now claimed”.
One Wall Street lawyer pointed out that even if BoNY lost in a Russian court, the judgment was unlikely to enforced elsewhere and the bank had only a small business in Russia that could be seized.
Political analysts said that Kremlin willingness to revisit a case that was an embarrassment to both Russia and the US potentially signalled the start of an investigation into official corruption during the era of Boris Yeltsin, the former Russian president, who died last month. At the time of the scandal there were rumours that Russian officials and businessmen had benefited from the scheme.
Andrei Piontovsky, a political analyst, said, “Moscow did everything to silence this scandal in the Yeltsin era. The timing of the customs service announcement may be connected to the recent death of Yeltsin. Putin may feel free of any obligations to protect the former ruling family”.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d29c52d4-04...0b5df10621.html
