MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti) - A person suspected of ordering the murder of Andrei Kozlov, a high-ranking Russian Central Bank official killed in September 2006, has been arrested, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said Thursday.
Kozlov, 41, who oversaw bank licensing and led efforts to close down dozens of banks for violations of banking legislation, particularly for money laundering, died September 14 after being shot the day before along with his driver.
"The person who ordered the murder of Andrei Kozlov, the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank, was arrested early on January 11," the office said in a press release, declining to reveal the suspect's name.
Prosecutor General Yury Chaika announced in early December that the high-profile murder had been solved, and that a number of suspects had been arrested in the course of the investigation.
His office said Thursday a total of seven people, including the suspected mastermind of the murder, have now been arrested.
A law enforcement source said the suspected mastermind is a major investor in Sodbiznesbank, whose license was revoked by the Central Bank in May 2004.
"According to investigators, the suspect, who was detained in the early hours of January 11 on suspicion of [ordering] Kozlov's murder, is an investor in a commercial bank," the source told RIA Novosti.
In June 2004, Moscow's arbitration court issued a ruling on Sodbiznesbank's liquidation. The financial monitoring committee claimed that the bank had failed to disclose required information about its operations.
