The Central Bank (CBR) said in a statement Wednesday that Iberus had failed to identify operations subject to compulsory monitoring, and had not supplied necessary information to the Federal Service for Fiscal Monitoring.
In the first half of August, five Russia-based clients of Iberus Bank made payments to non-residents on "suspicious transactions involving goods" worth over 12 billion rubles (about $470 million), the CBR said.
"The beneficiaries were five off-shore companies registered in Belize and on the British Virgin Islands. On the companies' order, the funds were transferred from their accounts to non-resident bank clients in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Kyrgyzstan through the bank's correspondent accounts in certain Ukrainian banks," the national banking regulator said.
In line with the CBR's order, a temporary external manager has been appointed, who will serve until a liquidator is appointed. The bank executives' authority has been frozen, under federal laws.
