Detectives look into 'family business' as possible source of Col. Zakharchenko's billions - newspaper
MOSCOW. Sept 15 (Interfax) - Detectives are looking into a theory of 'family business' as a possible source of money found in the inquiry into deputy head of the T division of the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Department Dmitry Zakharchenko, the newspaper Kommersant said on Thursday.
Sources from the banking community told the newspaper that they knew Zakharchenko's father, Viktor Zakharchenko, as the author of various financial schemes applied by owners and top managers from distressed banks.
According to the theory currently being examined by the police, Viktor Zakharchenko and his son helped bankers minimize losses before their licenses were revoked by the Central Bank, and NOTA Bank owners were amongst his clients, the newspaper said.
Detectives believe that the family helped the bankers transfer some funds abroad and cash the rest, but the money was unclaimed after the arrest of the bankers and Federal Security Service officers found it, the newspaper said.
Detectives also have another theory about the origin of those billions, the newspaper said.
It could be a group controlled by Dmitry Zakharchenko and his colleagues, which illegally cashed money and transferred funds abroad, it said.
According to that theory, the apartment of the officer's sister was used as a bank storage, a corporate rather than a family one, Kommersant said.
Deputy head of the T division of the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Department, Dmitry Zakharchenko, was arrested by the Moscow Presnensky Court on Saturday.
He is being implicated in taking a bribe, abusing his office and obstructing justice.
Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said that foreign currency equivalent to a total sum of 8.5 billion rubles was found at the places of Zakharchenko's work and residence in the course of a criminal inquiry against him.
The defendant told the court he had nothing to do with that money. "The money was found in my sister's apartment, and I had never been there. I have nothing to do with this money," Zakharchenko said. He also refuted accusations of taking a bribe of seven million rubles.
