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National Credit Charges

The Zamoskvoretsky Interregional Prosecutor's Office has brought criminal charges against the leadership of Natsionalny Kredit bank, which is suspected of embezzling 240 billion rubles. Although no names are mentioned in the charges, Oleg Boiko, Alexei Kozlov and Oleg Kononov -- all having served as chairmen of Natsionalny Kredit's board of directors at various times -- have been questioned. Now [detectives] intend to question the 44,000 depositors the bank owes.


"Oleg Boiko had some fancy business deals going that snagged on minor details, and the whole structure crashed," according to Boris Fyodorov, the chief of the National Sports Fund and chairman of Natsionalny Kredit's board, who says Boiko's dealing led to the collapse the bank that Boiko founded in 1990. When the bank began to sink in 1995, Boiko handed the reins to Fyodorov, who was interested foremost in saving the $80 million of Sports Fund money that was tied up [in the bank]. ...


According to information from the Central Bank's main directorate, Fyodorov was able to get the Sports Fund's money back. The bank also settled its debts with members of [Boiko's holding] the OLBI group. But the bank's numerous depositors were left with nothing. On June 20 of last year, Boris Fyodorov was ... shot in the stomach with a Luger and stabbed four times with a knife. ...


The first thing workers from the Interior Ministry's Sixth Regional Department ... did was to question Oleg Boiko as a witness. However, he was not able to come in for questioning because he is confined to a wheelchair after breaking a vertebra in a fall from the second floor of his Monaco villa last September. So he was questioned at home. Depositors had hoped the questioning would lead to fraud charges being brought against Boiko. However ... the Zamoskvoretskaya Prosecutor's Office does not believe the suit will go to trial for lack of proof that Natsionalny Kredit's management deliberately stole depositors' money.



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