$1m tax sting as agents try to tackle tide of corruption

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From Jeremy Page in Moscow



THEY waited until the hidden cameras showed the suitcase being passed to Oleg Alekseyev in the plush surroundings of the Balchug Kempinski Hotel bar in Moscow.

Then the state security agents pounced. Inside the case, prosecutors say, they found $1 million (£570,000) in cash — part of a bribe that Mr Alekseyev, a senior tax inspector, and Aleksei Mishin, a Central Bank official, had allegedly demanded from a Russian bank.

Agents from the FSB, the KGB’s successor, also arrested Mr Mishin, raided his apartment on the elite Rublyovskoe Shosse, and confiscated another $1 million found in three bags at his office.

The two officials now stand accused of jointly trying to extract $5.3 million from Aleksei Ivashchenko, the chairman of Russian Capital, in exchange for dropping a back tax claim against the bank. A spokeswoman for Russian Capital declined to comment.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-1833620,00.html