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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BELGRADE, Serbia -- A judge on Friday ordered the richest man in Serbia to be held in prison for 30 days pending trial on suspicion of corruption, as the government hailed his arrest as proof that no one is above the law in the graft-plagued country.

The arrest of influential billionaire retail tycoon Miroslav Miskovic is part of an anti-corruption sweep that the new nationalist government says is necessary if the country wants to move closer to European Union membership. But critics argue the crackdown is mostly aimed at political opponents and allies of the country's previous pro-Western leadership.

Miskovic, 67, was arrested on Wednesday along with his son Marko and eight others in connection with the privatization of several Serbian road construction companies in 2005, during which the suspects allegedly gained illegal profits of about $39 million.

The judge at Serbia's special court for organized crime ruled that Miskovic, his son and five others must remain in prison during the pre-trial investigation. The rest were freed, with their travel documents seized.

"We are now starting with the investigations," said public prosecutor for organized crime Miljko Radisavljevic. "We will try to collect as much evidence as possible."

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Briefly served in Milosevic government
Miskovic is the owner of Delta Holding, the largest private company in Serbia, which deals with retail, real estate, insurance and agriculture business throughout the Balkans. Though he is not openly a government opponent he has financed several pro-Western parties that are now in opposition.

He started his business empire under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s, when he also briefly served as deputy prime minister.

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But after Milosevic fell from power in 2000, Miskovic supported the new, pro-Western authorities and expanded his wealth, estimated in 2007 at some $2 billion and believed to have grown since then.

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Romeo Ranoco / Reuters, file

Ex-Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is escorted by an aide after visiting her parents' graves on July 27. She ended about seven months of detention at an army hospital in July after posting bail on election fraud charges.

Updated at 8:50 a.m. ET: MANILA -- Former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was detained on Thursday on charges of plunder, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of life in jail, in one of a series of corruption cases brought against her.

Less than three months after she was released on bail following about eight months in detention on charges of election fraud, the latest charge against the ailing Arroyo involves the more serious offence of misusing state lottery funds.

"When we arrived at the hospital, she was lying on the bed with an IV attached to her," Senior Superintendent Joel Coronel, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, told reporters. Arroyo, who suffers from a spine condition, was being treated for dehydration.

Philippines city restores Imelda Marcos' shoe collection after flood damage

Coronel said Arroyo, 65, was "very cooperative" when police took her fingerprints and photos.

The Ombudsman's office alleges that Arroyo and her co-accused unlawfully acquired and accumulated public funds amounting to 366 million pesos ($8.8 million) by diverting lottery funds for personal gain.

Another former Philippine president, Joseph Estrada, was pursued by the Arroyo administration under the same Plunder Law. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, but was pardoned a short time later.

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Aaron Favila / AP

Sandiganbayan Executive Assistant Florecal Sebastian shows a copy of the Order of Arrest on Thursday.

Coronel said Arroyo would remain under confinement at the army hospital where she was held earlier this year.

Arroyo, president from 2001 to 2010, is unlikely to escape detention this time around as the charge under the Plunder Law is a non-bailable offence.

Arroyo also faces allegations of graft over an aborted $329 million national broadband deal with China's ZTE Corp. in 2007. She denies all charges and posted bail on both cases.

President Benigno Aquino's pursuit of charges against Arroyo and the Philippines' success in kicking out her allies -- the Ombudsman and the Supreme Court chief justice -- all within a span of about a year have been cheered by investors as clear signs that the government is serious in its anti-graft agenda.

Arroyo was stopped last year by government agents at Manila's main international airport as she was on her way to board a plane for overseas medical treatment. 

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