Some staff members
have been summoned for questioning.
MOSCOW, October 15.
/TASS/. Russia’s Investigative Committee is carrying out searches in 30 regions
across the country at the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), founded by Russian
opposition figure Alexey Navalny, as part of a criminal probe into money
laundering, IC Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told TASS on Tuesday.
"Today searches
are being conducted as part of preliminary investigation in 30 federal subjects
in the organization’s headquarters and at the places of residence of staff
members of FBK’s regional branches. Items and documents are being seized, which
the investigators deem as important," Petrenko said, noting that some
staff members had been summoned for questioning.
Earlier, a source in
the law enforcement agencies told TASS that on Tuesday investigators launched
searches in regional headquarters in Arkhangelsk and Belgorod. Searches are
also being held at the places of residence of FBK’s activists in Ufa, Samara,
Saratov, Yekaterinburg, Yaroslavl, Chelyabinsk, Novokuznetsk and Krasnodar.
According to the
spokeswoman, upon the investigators’ request the court had arrested FBK’s
accounts in credit organizations. "It has been confirmed that money from
foreign sources had been transferred to these accounts. In particular, this
fact served as a ground for including the foundation into the registry of
organizations fulfilling the functions of foreign agents," Petrenko said.
On October 9, the
Russian Justice Ministry reported that Navalny’s foundation had been placed on
the list of non-profit organizations acting as foreign agents. According to the
ministry, FBK was engaged in political activity and was bankrolled from abroad.
Only in 2019, the organization received some 140,000 rubles ($2,157) in two
tranches from Spain and one from the US.
The Russian
Investigative Committee earlier launched criminal proceedings regarding the
financing of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. According to the investigation,
since January 2016 until December 2018, people tied to the foundation received
large-scale sums of money in Russian and foreign currency by unlawful means,
and later used a money laundering scheme to bankroll the foundation. The courts
froze more than 100 accounts of the foundation and individuals tied to it as
part of the case.
Source: ITAR-TASS
15-10-2019
