Reuters: The $1.2 billion fraud alleged at Russia’s largest bank
January 22, 2010
Tucked away on page 4 of the Moscow Times today there is a remarkable article which made me wonder whether I wasn’t hallucinating.
The report states matter-of-factly that several branch managers are being investigated for defrauding $1.2 billion from Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank. That’s according to comments made by Sberbank’s regional manager for Moscow. The Moscow Times translated the article from Thursday’s edition of the Russian newspaper Vedomosti, where it appears on page 7.
According to this article, Sberbank suspects managers at three Moscow branches of doling out “thieving” loans, on the basis of “fictitious” documents, to “dubious” companies. The scale of the resulting losses at these three branches? “More than 35 billion roubles” ($1.2 billion).
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