The Department of Internal Affairs Ural Federal District’s division officers suppressed a crime group whose members are believed to have stolen 6.3 million RUR from Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank and some 16 million RUR from Koltso Urala Bank.

The officers of the Yekaterinburg-based division initiated a number of criminal lawsuits on March 11, 2009, with charges based on Article 4 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code (large-scale fraud by an organized crime group). Their investigation revealed that a number of people had been using the names of companies like Konservant, Uralprodukt, and Yug-Konserv for three years to fool the banks into giving them over 22 million RUR worth of loans. To make their enterprises look serious and reliable, the offenders provided the banks with false financial data and pretended to run booming businesses.

‘Despite the fact that most banks have a powerful security department and a lot of technical and informational support, they are still not safe from the attacks of some organized crime groups looking for a nice bit of money,’ the Department of Internal Affairs Ural Federal District’s division reports.