CBR raids Vyatka Bank, seeks information on bank owner
MOSCOW. Feb 15 (Interfax) - Central Bank officials are conducting a surprise inspection of Kirov-based Vyatka Bank, the adviser to the lender's president and principal owner, Grigory Guselnikov said Tuesday in his Twitter microblog.
"Eight Central Bank inspectors came to all Vyatka Bank branches. There is no specific goal - 'management ordered to search,'" Guselnikov wrote.
He posted a photograph of the inspection order signed by the head of the Central Bank's chief inspectorate for lending institutions. It is valid until March 16.
Sometime later, Guselnikov posted a photograph of a document listing the persons and organizations that the inspectors are supposedly interested in. It includes Guselnikov himself, NO Foundation for the Support of Initiatives of the Governor of Kirov Region, NO Foundation for Fighting Corruption, law firm LLC Navalny & Partners, as well as LLC Interregional Development Center, LLC AVVA, LLC Deitona, LLC Oniks, LLC Reliable Partners, LLC Gorod Kafe, and LLC SPP Trading House.
"The Foundation for the Support of Initiatives of the Governor of Kirov Region has had accounts for more than two years. Until the notorious media attack on [Governor] Nikita Belykh, no one was interested in its accounts," Guselnikov said, adding later that he was a co-founder of this foundation along with Belykh, prominent political blogger and activist Alexei Navalny and the head of international cooperation at the Skolkovo fund, Alexei Sitnikov.
"Central Bank inspections are a normal, regular working process. There are hundreds of Central Bank employees in Kirov, dozens just 'for us.' Why send 'assault teams' from Moscow?" Guselnikov wrote.
Interfax has been unable to obtain any comment from the Central Bank.
Alexei Navalny in 2009 acted as an adviser to Kirov Region Governor Nikita Belykh, the former leader of the Union of Right Forces.
In May 2011, the chief investigative department of Russia's Investigation Committee launched a criminal investigation against Navalny under Part 3, Article 165 of the Criminal Code - causing material harm through fraud or abuse of trust in the absence of signs of theft.
Investigators alleged that in 2009 Navalny, as adviser to the governor, committed a number of illegal acts resulting in serious damages to Kirov regional government enterprise Kirovles.
In 2009, Navalny and the co-director of the DA! youth movement Maria Gaidar were nominated for the board of directors of Vyatka Bank, but they were not elected.
Vyatka Bank was ranked 170th by assets at the end of 2011 in the Interfax-100 ranking of Russia's banks.