Investigators questioned VIP Bank executive after the bank's founder had been arrested for ordering the murder of Andrey Kozlov (in the picture), formerly the Central Bank’s second-highest ranking official.
Photo: Alexander Miridonov
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New Arrests in the Kozlov Murder Case
Former head of VIP Bank’s St. Petersburg office and two other bank employees were arrested in St. Petersburg Tuesday on suspicion of bombing the car of the bank’s local office executive. Lawyers of the bank’s former head Alexey Frenkel, who had been earlier arrested for plotting the murder of Central Bank Deputy Chairman Andrey Kozlov, believe that the St. Petersburg case was opened to demonstrate that VIP Bank had long been criminal-tainted.
A St. Petersburg court sanctioned an arrest for Andrey Belov and the bank’s two security officers, Oleg Timofeev and Sergey Ishcheev, for ten days, during which they can be charged.
The arrest warrant was issued basing on testimony of Denis Kislitsyn, former head of the bank’s St. Petersburg branch. Investigators questioned the official after VIP Bank’s founder Alexey Frenkel had been arrested in Moscow for ordering the murder of Andrey Kozlov, formerly the Central Bank’s second-highest ranking official. Investigators believe that Frenkel and some of his accomplices could have committed other crimes, for example, the bombing of Denis Kislitsyn’s car and arson of this country house in spring 2004.
Igor Trunov, lawyer for Alexey Frenkel, told Kommersant that his client’s arrest and the detentions in St. Petersburg could be linked. He said this had been done to fuel suspicions against Mr. Frenkel, showing that his bank had long been a criminal one.
Russian prosecutors are set to bring official charges against Alexey Frenkel on Wednesday. Igor Trunov says that his client does not plead guilty and willing to prove his innocence in court.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 17, 2007
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