Today the Investigative Committee has hosted a joint meeting of boards of the Russia’s Investigative Committee and the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring). The meeting was attended by the members of the board of the Investigative Committee, heads of divisions of the Central Office of the two agencies and investigations directorates in constituent entities of Russia, heads of territorial bodies of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service and invited persons.
In his speech Chairman of the Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin noted high level of expertise of the employees of Rosfinmonitoring thanks to which the Investigative Committee can get files of high quality and use them in full to prosecute plunderers of budgetary funds. Mr. Bastrykin noted that “thanks to joint efforts of the agencies we have managed to stop large embezzlements in selling real estates, lands and shares managed by the Russian Ministry of Defense and multiple thefts of funds from the budget which are then laundered during state procurement in the area of housing and communal services, road building, healthcare and other areas”.
Speaking about fighting corruption the Chairman noted that “the growing wave of acts of corruption requires not only retaliatory measures, but well-weighed legislative ones as well”. Therefore, Mr. Bastrykin reminded about legislative initiatives of the Russia’s Investigative Committee to deoffshore the economy, namely, about a bill introducing criminal liability of legal entities for bringing back to Russia criminal capital withdrawn abroad and put on a payroll in foreign organizations.
In his opening speech Director of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service Yuri Chikhanchin reminded that last week in the European Council Russian anti-money-laundering system had successfully reported on its meeting international standards. The guarantee that that the systems for combating money laundering and terrorist financing are highly appreciated by international society is constant renewal of information resources, automation of processes which first of all seek to enhance transparency of financial organizations. Such an approach, according to the head of financial monitoring, among others would help activating battle against acts of corruption, especially when financial organizations must not only inform about suspicious financial transactions, but particularly mark out those connected with contractors of the so-called VIPs. “VIPs are those who influence economic and political situation in the country”, - he reminded, noting that the majority of financial organizations in Russia have such lists and store information on profits and expenditures of the said individuals.
During the meeting the parties discussed interagency cooperation, including coordination of joint efforts of investigating bodies and divisions of Rosfinmonitoring in constituent entities of the Russian Federation and also spoke about the ways to improve current laws in the area of battling corruption and money laundering.
Head of Media Relations V.I. Markin
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