Police seizing documents at insurance oversight service Rosstrakhnadzor's central office
MOSCOW. July 12 (Interfax) - License-related files and oversight reports are being seized at the central office of the federal insurance oversight service company Rosstrakhnadzor and at its inspectorates in the Central Federal District, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry's Department for Economic Security and Combating Corruption told Interfax.
"It is one more step in a series of search operations, which have helped uncover corrupt schemes, and document insurance bureaucrats' practice to raise artificial barriers and to extort bribes," the spokesman said.
Police are interested in documents related to insurance companies, which were dealing with the regulator using "illegal cash rewards." Searches had been conducted previously at commercial organizations, whose manager is known in the insurance community as a person "offering assistance in resolving problems with the regulator," he also said.
Large sums of cash were found during the searches and also a large number of copies of instructions to insurance companies [among them a copy received from the Rosstrakhnadzor without a signature and outgoing number], as well as copies of personal files of Rosstrakhnadzor's high-placed officials, plus gear to jam recording and transmitting equipment."
Police earlier detained the deputy head of the Insurance Inspectorate for the Central Federal District, Linnik, and the deputy head of one of the inspectorate's departments who is suspected of providing agency services.
Official spokesman for the Interior Ministry's main Economic Security department Albert Istomin said in the first half of June that two officials of Rosstrakhnadzor's Inspectorate for the central federal District, detained in Moscow in the act of accepting a 5 million-ruble bribe, are suspected of artificially raising barriers to businesses people.
A Rosstrakhnadzor source said then that the seizure of documents may be linked to the service's dispute with the Avangard-Garant company.
The documents seized had to do with Avangard-Garant and five other companies, he said.