To: PaulM who wrote (7439 ) 2/11/1998 1:50:00 AM From: Abner Hosmer Read Replies (2) | Respond to
Paul - From a lengthy report:riia.org (b) Infiltration of the banking industry whose death was one more in a long series of murders of bank officials . Bank chairmen expressed their alarm and frustration not only at the failure to apprehend the killers but also at the gap between government rhetoric and effective action. from 1994 to July 1995 there were thirty assassination attempts against top banking officials, sixteen of whom were killed . These killings, along with the earlier ones, were an important indicator of the efforts by criminal organizations to infiltrate the Russian banking system and take control of particular banks. Criminal ownership of banks is not unprecedented. If the Russians cannot claim responsibility for innovation, however, they have turned this technique into an art form. In August 1995 the MVD All Russia Scientific Research Institute estimated that criminal groups control over 400 banks and 47 exchanges . An even more pessimistic assessment was made by Professor Lydia Krasfavina, head of the Institute for Banking and Financial Managers, who estimated that 70 to 80 per cent of private banks in Russia are controlled by organized crime . What control actually means is not entirely clear. In some cases criminals could have forced their way onto the board of bank officials and become full participants in all key decisions of the bank. Alternatively, they may remain in the background, exercising their power simply through intimidation..(c) Infiltration of industry (d) Contract killings (f) Nuclear material trafficking
