The Russian anti-corruption official arrested on bribery charges held 300 million euro ($336 million) in Western bank accounts, the Rosbalt news agency reported Wednesday.
Dmitry Zakharchenko, the former deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Committee for Economic Security and Combating Corruption, was found with stacks of cash worth $120 million when police searched his home last week.
Police seized money from Zakharchenko's study, car and sister’s apartment.
Members of Zakharchenko’s family, namely his 53-year-old father, also held a number of offshore accounts with prestigious Western banks, investigators told the Rosbalt news agency. Each account was found to hold between 45 million to 47 million euro.
Police are investigating whether the money could be tied to an embezzlement scheme at the now-defunct NOTA Bank, but the offshore funds surpass anything that the official could have stolen, one security service source told Rosbalt.
Although graft is the official version of Zakharchenko’s arrest, conspiracy theories have already began to appear in the Russian media.
Kremlin-loyal tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda reported on Tuesday that the seized cash could have been imported from the United States to fuel “Maidan-like” unrest in Moscow.
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