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Grigory Dukor / Reuters
Russia's Central Bank Governor Sergei Ignatyev has generally kept a low profile during his 11-year tenure.
MOSCOW - Nearly $50 billion was transferred out of Russia illegally in 2012 and more than half this sum may have been controlled by a single group of people, the country's central bank said on Wednesday.
Sergei Ignatyev, chairman of the Bank of Russia, was citing the findings of a study that the bank said it would publish later on Wednesday.
"You get the impression that they (half the transfers) are all controlled by one well-organized group of people," Sergei Ignatyev, chairman of the Bank of Russia, told the Vedomosti daily in an interview.
Ignatyev, who is due to retire in June, declined to identify the group in response to a reporter's question at the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, where he was due to deliver an address.
But the central bank analysis appears to be an indictment of President Vladimir Putin's brand of state capitalism, which critics say has allowed official corruption to flourish on a huge scale.
'Bribes and kickbacks'
It also marks an unusually strong intervention by Ignatyev, who during his 11-year tenure has kept a generally low profile, seeking to preserve the central bank's policy autonomy without pushing for full, Western-style independence from politics.
Putin is due to nominate a successor to him in March, but no front runner has yet emerged.
The central bank study found that $49 billion, or around 2.5 percent of gross domestic product, was spirited illegally out of Russia last year.
"It can be payment for narcotics ... 'grey' imports ... bribes and kickbacks to officials (and) managers making large-scale purchases," Ignatyev told Vedomosti. "It can be schemes to avoid tax."
Of the total, the central bank estimates that $14 billion is related to trade operations, with the remainder made up of $35.1 billion in "dubious" capital transfers.
The latter represents 60 percent of last year's officially reported total net capital outflows of $56.8 billion, according to the study.
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Pffft. Compared to Wall St., The Chicago Board of Traitors and the Banksters this is chump change.
It's in the Cayman Islands. Check the "petty" fund accounts!
Ya Stonepipe2, throw in the amount of money snuck across the border into Mexico and it's really chump change!
Sounds to me like the don't really know much haha
Capitalist corruption is the same as Communist corruption, no difference.
Gangster Capitalism
Americans at WalMart send more than that out of the US. Are we supposed to cry for Russia ?
Mexicans in America send more than that out too.
Money is not the only item leaving Russia. The average life expectancy of the Russian male is 58.9 years. Russia has one of the highest abortion rates in Europe. Russia is experiencing an approx 30% loss in population with each generation. By 2070 Russia will be unable to man Siberia or an effective army or anything else.
And everyone thought the Wall came down because of what Pres Ron Reagan did...
Get a life dumb a$$, it was Capitalistic GREED that tore down that dam wall!!
Monkey see America do.....
The Russians look like us, dress like us, read our books as we read theirs, we play each others music, etc etc. It's time our idiots in the State Department stopped messing with them all the time. Or would you rather have the Chinese to the west of Russia and all the Muslims to their south as our allies?!
Oops, OK, it's Chinese to the east of Russia and Muslims to the south. Imagine, though, Russia's border problems compared to the border on our south which we continually whine about!
I'm guessing the same happens everywhere. This is the first report published about it.
So how do the Russkies make up the difference? Maybe they should be more creative with their cash - like us.
Perhaps Putin is a double agent !
I guarantee you much more illegally entered Russia. Their organized crime is behind some of the biggest cyber fraud schemes and other illegal activities that rip off people on a global scale.
Better happening in russia than the US- we've had enough white collar crime here to make that $50 bil look like nothing
I won't be surprised if Sergei Ignatyev's body winds up in a barrell of cement.
Oh this is the reported peanuts! And Sergey is fish food soon.