The judicial inquiry regarding a group of fraudsters who used forged documents to get loans from Home Credit and Finance Bank Ltd and Russian Standard Bank began in Yekaterinburg. The first court hearing took place in Sverdlovsk Region Court a few days earlier. The court’s press officer reports the hearing resulted in the reading of the bill of indictment and an announcement regarding the start of the inquiry. The next hearing has been scheduled for September 23, 2007.

The group’s leader Yuri Saiyan is a first-time offender with a college degree; there were eleven people involved in the fraud altogether; two of them happen to be Mr. Saiyan’s brothers.

So far, Mr. Saiyan has been charged with offenses related to 216 counts; there are seven more people among the accused, with three people still on the federal wanted lists, the press officer notes.