MOSCOW, December 6 (RIA Novosti) - Russian law enforcement agencies have seized documents at IBM's Moscow office, leaving the company building at around 7:00 p.m. Moscow time (4:00 p.m. GMT), a security guard said Wednesday.
IBM representative Jonathan Batty, who is in Moscow, said the company is cooperating with Russian authorities in an investigation they are conducting with regard to the company's Russian operations. He did not provide further details.
Employees at IBM and two other IT companies in Moscow said earlier Wednesday that searches have been conducted at their offices.
Reporters and television correspondents have gathered near the building, housing the global IT provider. But the companies' press services and law enforcement bodies have so far declined to comment.
An employee at IBM said the corporation's office in central Moscow was already closed Tuesday, and that managers told the staff to go home, citing the searches.
Security guards and receptionists in the building confirmed the raids Wednesday, saying they began early in the morning, and that around a dozen special police were on the company's premises.
They also said police were stationed outside the building.
A staff member at Lanit, a leading Russian software provider, said the company has also been searched.
"Employees were barred from their work places, and documents on their tables, as well as their personal belongings, were examined," he said, adding that company executives, top managers and those who arrived before the searches began were sequestered in a conference hall.
A source at another Russian IT provider, R-Style, also reported searches at the company.
Media reports earlier said the raids were being conducted by the Federal Customs Service. But the agency's press service said it had no information on raids at IBM, promising to verify the reports.
The press services in the Moscow Prosecutor's Office and Prosecutor General's Office said prosecutors were not involved in the searches.
Other agencies fighting economic crime, including the Interior Ministry and the Moscow Interior Department, did not confirm that their officers had been sent to raid the companies.
Another IBM employee denied the comments as premature, but said it was not the first time the multinational corporation has been raided in Moscow, the last time being five years ago.
